Public consultation on the proportionality of proposed legislative amendments to the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 affecting social care workers

The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has launched a public consultation on proposed legislation which will amend the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 to change the route to registration for social care workers with CORU during the transitional period of the Social Care Worker Register. Directive 2018/958 of the European Parliament requires a proportionality test to be carried out by Member States before the introduction of new, or the amendment of existing, professional regulations that restrict access to, or the pursuit of, regulated professions. The Directive was transposed into Irish law in August 2022 (SI 413/2022). As the proposed amendment to the 2005 Act amends an existing regulatory provision, the State is conducting an assessment of the proportionality of the proposed measure.

This public consultation is being conducted by the Irish Department of Health. The consultation consists of an online survey which seeks the views and opinions of health and social care professionals, organisations and interested members of the public on proposed reforms to the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 which will affect the registration route for social care workers with CORU during the transitional period of the register.

This will inform you about the reasons for the public consultation and will provide you with some background information. Please click on the link at the bottom of this page to take the survey. You will be redirected to the EU survey site where you will be given further instructions on how to complete the survey.

Surveys can also be downloaded, completed, and returned via email to professional_regulation_consultation@health.gov.ie

A Word survey document is available to download here.

The views and opinions collected will be considered by the department and will be used to help determine the proportionality of the reforms proposed.

A consultation report will be prepared based on the responses to this survey, however, individual responses will not be reported.

Any personal information submitted to the department will be treated strictly in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Please note that requests can be made to see the submissions the department receives under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2014 and therefore survey responses may be released in response to an FOI request.

This is more likely to happen for surveys completed by organisations. This means that the requestor might be given the answers you provide to the survey. However, any personal information included would be redacted prior to release. If you have any queries, please email opendisclosurepolicy@health.gov.ie

Read the Department of Health’s Privacy Statement.

To view the consultation click the button below.