Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 April 2023
1600. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Health if dental and nursing qualifications issued by Northern Irish institutions are still recognised as equal to qualifications issued by Irish institutions. [17435/23]
View answerAlong with the professions of midwife, doctor, pharmacist and dentist, Registered General Nurse (RGN) is one of the five health professions falling within the scope of the European Union’s automatic recognition system for professional qualifications as per the Professional Qualifications Directive 2005/36/EC.
Applications for registration with any EU member state are assessed based on citizenship in the first instance, to determine if the EU Directive is applicable or not. The national regulators within the EU Member States are obliged to cooperate and act promptly so that confirmation of automatic recognition of qualifications can be issued to applicants within the prescribed timeline, which in the case of General Nurses is 3 months.
Applications received from outside the EU are processed based on assessment of qualifications, education and training, which is compared to the national regulator’s standards and requirements for recognition of qualifications. The Directive also obliges member states to comply with specified minimum training standards.
Irish education institutions offer courses for nursing and midwifery which are pre-approved by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI) to lead to direct registration. Applicants from all other jurisdictions must have their qualifications assessed to ensure appropriate alignment with the NMBI standards and requirements. This recognition process is the key first step to be completed before proceeding further through to the remaining stages of the registration process.
Since the UK has left the EU, the regulator, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (UK) is no longer obliged to comply with the Directive, including no longer being obliged to provide verification that an applicant’s undergraduate programme had met the EU Directive requirements at the time of completion. This has resulted in the NMBI requiring applicants to supply documentary evidence (usually including transcripts of their education qualification(s)) and sometimes seeking direct evidence from the applicant’s education provider confirming that course(s) had aligned with the standards required by the EU Directive.
Recently, the NMBI has secured an agreement with the NMC which provides that the latter can now issue an adapted verification of alignment certificate regarding UK obtained qualifications achieved while the UK was a member of the EU. This has significantly reduced the processing time for applicants with qualifications obtained in the UK. Work is ongoing to improve this process further. The NMBI is also engaging with Queen’s University and the University of Ulster to minimise disruption to the qualification recognition process.
The Dental Council is the regulatory body for dental professionals in Ireland. Its general concern is to promote high standards of professional education and professional conduct among dentists.
The Dental Council have advised that the dental qualification from Queen’s University Belfast (the only undergraduate dental programme in Northern Ireland) is recognised as being equivalent to, rather than equal to, the two Irish dental programmes at the moment. It is recognised in the same way as all other UK qualifications are recognised.
The council has completed an exercise with the General Dental Council to ensure that the UK qualifications have not deviated from the requirements for dental education under the European Union's Professional Qualifications Directive.
