Mental Health Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-09
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Lynn Ruane (IND), University of Dublin

I do not at all dispute that regulation, governance and oversight are required. I am saying that people should not be impacted unnecessarily by regulation. If a vetting procedure is introduced, there are people with a history that would place them under the category of being unable to work with vulnerable adults, but that is not the case for everyone. My concern is that there may be a lot of sectors that are working with people who will be impacted by this Bill because they have a conviction and that those sectors do not understand how they can apply discretion to certain matters. They may not understand that a past conviction can have absolutely nothing to do with the job at hand and that the person in question is not an unsafe person. That is potentially a risk to a very experienced, passionate and committed workforce. People in that situation are really concerned about it. I am not saying CORU should not introduce regulations to ensure the situation the Minister of State mentioned is dealt with where it arises. It is about making sure those regulations do not have a knock-on effect such that people lose their jobs who should not lose them.
Regarding CORU registration of psychologists, what will happen with people who are calling themselves psychologists but have not been practising psychologists? They might be academics who give speeches, say, but they do not practise psychology. Will there be a definition that recognises that type of variance in the context of CORU registration and the future implementation of this Bill?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:26+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-09