Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 13 July 2017
920. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Health the details of registration and regulation of those offering hypnosis as a method of prompting weight loss, assisting with quitting smoking and so on; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34674/17]
View answerThere is at present no statutory regulation of complementary therapists, including hypnotherapists, in Ireland. While complementary therapists are not subject to professional statutory regulation, they are subject to a range of legislation and regulation, similar to other practitioners including consumer legislation, competition, contract and criminal law.
The report of the National Working Group on the Regulation of Complementary Therapists was published in 2005. Department policy has been informed by this Report and while considering it, the Department of Health has supported greater voluntary self-regulation of complementary therapy. Since 2005, much has changed: changes of Government – revised Programmes for Government; resource constraint and the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2009; changes nationally and internationally in relation to policy on statutory regulation.
Since then, the immediate priority has been the establishment of the boards of the remaining professions designated under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005, including the newly designated professions of counsellor and psychotherapist. I recently concluded a public consultation on my proposal to regulate counsellors generally under the Act. On foot of the consultation process, I decided last month to proceed with the designation of two distinct professions, that of counsellor and psychotherapist. Each will have its own register under one registration board. This decision has now been communicated to the Health and Social Care Professionals Council, the relevant professional bodies and all of the respondents to the public consultation process.
The Department is now preparing the necessary regulations to designate the professions. These regulations, when drafted by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, will require the prior approval of this House and that of the Seanad. These will be the first in a suite of regulations that will need to be made over a period of time. It is hoped that the draft regulations will be ready for submission to the Oireachtas in the autumn.
