Holly Cairns
Question:259. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Health the steps he is taking in relation to the waiting lists for CORU to register health and social care professionals. [55178/21]
View answerWednesday, 10 November 2021
Questions (259)
Written answers
As the Deputy is aware, CORU is Ireland's multi-profession health and social care regulator. CORU’s role is to protect the public by regulating the health and social care professions designated under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 (as amended). The Act seeks to protect the public by providing a system of statutory registration for designated health and social care professions. There are two forms of application to CORU; applications for the recognition of qualifications received outside the State and applications for registration.
Where a health and social care professional qualifies outside the State and applies to register in Ireland, they must apply for the recognition of their qualification. Once a complete file has been submitted to CORU, a decision must issue within four months. Currently there is no waiting list for such applications. Nevertheless, CORU continues to innovate to shorten timeframes for these applicants.
In respect of applications for registration, CORU has informed my officials that the average processing time for an application for registration is 9.2 weeks for new applicants entering a profession. This represents an improvement on the previous average of 14 weeks.
I met with the Chairperson and CEO of CORU earlier this year and raised the issue of timeframes for recognition of qualifications and registration. Following our discussion, a variety of measures have been initiated by CORU aimed at further reducing timeframes. CORU has informed my officials of two innovations that will further improve these processes. Firstly, applications for the recognition of qualifications received outside the State are now accepted for all professions through an online application system, which launched this year. Secondly, CORU has commenced the contemporaneous processing of recognition and registration applications. Once an applicant submits an application for recognition an invitation to initiate a registration application to run in parallel is issued. These initiatives, in addition to additional resources I have allocated to CORU, are anticipated to further reduce timeframes.
Furthermore, a number of opportunities for innovation and change have been identified by CORU, some are already underway, while work is beginning on others. For example work is underway to assess alternative approaches to facilitate recognition of EU qualifications which would reduce timeframes and CORU has also commenced a project to facilitate the digitisation and integration of all registrant related systems.
My department will continue to support CORU in achieving its strategic vision and improving timeframes for all applicants into the future.