Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 22 February 2023
229. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for Health if he will report on progress to give statutory recognition and protection to the designation of "counsellor"; if he will provide a timeline for the opening of the planned register for counsellors; and his views on the adequacy of existing and planned measures to regulate rogue crisis pregnancy agencies. [9099/23]
View answerCounsellors and Psychotherapists were designated for regulation through S.I. No. 170 in 2018. The Counsellors and Psychotherapists Registration Board (CPRB) was established in 2019. The ongoing work of the CPRB includes consideration of the titles to be protected, the minimum qualifications to be required of existing practitioners, the qualifications that will be required for future graduates, and drafting the Standards of Proficiency and Criteria for Education and Training Programmes.
The work of the CPRB is significantly more challenging than it is for registration boards for some of the more established professions owing to the different and complex pathways into these professions, the variety of titles used, and the variety and number of courses and course providers.
Owing to the significant body of preparatory work that the CPRB is required to undertake, it is not possible to say with any degree of accuracy when the professions of counsellor and psychotherapist will be fully regulated. It is anticipated that the CPRB will require a number of years to complete its work.
Regarding the number of rogue crisis pregnancy agencies, The HSE - along with my department are aware and continue to monitor the situation in relation to disingenuous agencies operating in Ireland.
The HSE recommend that people should contact My Options which is the official HSE service if they need information or support in the event of an unplanned pregnancy, or if they need post-abortion supports.
The HSE has taken several measures to address the issue of disingenuous agencies targeting people experiencing unplanned pregnancy, promoting awareness of My Options through Google search ads, targeted social media, out of home (OOH), radio and digital audio advertising.
The My Options search ad campaign is performing extremely well and appears as the top ad or as the top organic search result for any related searches. To help combat the promotion of disingenuous messaging, the HSE are monitoring any competitors and have set a bid management strategy to automatically increase their bids if another website appears ahead of theirs. The HSE monitor the search ad performance and that of disingenuous agencies on an on-going basis and share feedback with Google.
