(b) Opening of Registers
What work needs to be completed before the Registration Board can open its registers for clinical, counselling and educational psychologists?
There is a detailed and complex process of work to be completed by each Registration Board before the opening of a register.
The process of implementing regulation for the profession involves several important and interdependent milestones, each of which plays a crucial role in ensuring public protection and establishing the foundation for safe practice. Each of these steps ensures that the legal and regulatory infrastructure is in place that facilitates the opening of a register.
Opening a register requires the following key milestones to be met:
- Milestone One: Setting of Pre-Registration Education and Training Requirements (Standards of Proficiency and Criteria for Education and Training Programmes)
- Milestone Two: Setting of the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics
- Milestone Three: the adoption of a list of qualifications for entry onto each of the registers
- Milestone Four: Establishment of all registration Bye-Laws
Following the achievement of each of these milestones, a Registration Board can open its register(s) and the 2-year period for grandparenting existing practitioners will commence.
Following the close of this transition period, the professional title associated with the opening of the register (i.e. Clinical Psychologist, Counselling Psychologist, Educational Psychologist, Psychologist) becomes legally protected and any individual seeking to use the title, from this moment onwards, must be registered with the Psychologists Registration Board.
What is the timeline for the opening of registers for clinical, counselling and educational psychologists?
The Psychologists Registration Board has set and published its pre-registration education and training requirements (Standards of Proficiency and Criteria for Education and Training Programmes) for each of the three specialisms. It has also undertaken a stakeholder consultation process on its draft Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics and its CPD Guidance and Support.
The Board has adopted the list of qualifications for the three specialisms currently used by the Health Service Executive for employability eligibility at entry level for entry. The adoption of this list of qualifications – in line with Section 38(2D) of the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 (as amended) – will facilitate the more timely opening of these three registers.
Engagement is ongoing with education providers in preparation for commencement of the Board’s programme approval process. This programme approval process will be completed during the 2-year transition period following the opening of the registers. By the close of the transition period, the Board will have set what is known as its Approved Qualifications Bye-Law which lists the qualifications it has approved for entry to its registers. When the Approved Qualifications Bye-Law is in place, the Board will cease use of the list of qualifications it adopted from the HSE.
The opening of registers for the three specialisms requires a number of technical amendments to the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 (as amended). CORU is working collaboratively with the Department of Health to progress these amendments, along with the remaining legislative and regulatory steps necessary to establish the registers for clinical, counselling and educational psychologists.
In light of this ongoing legislative process, the opening of the first three registers is now expected in 2027. CORU and the Department of Health remain committed to progressing this work as efficiently as possible, while ensuring that the regulatory framework is robust, transparent and aligned with statutory requirements
As the process moves forward, updates will be provided on the CORU website and through our social media channels, along with continuing engagement with the professional body, the Psychological Society of Ireland, union and other stakeholders.
Is there any update on work towards opening a register for all other psychology specialisms?
Alongside its work progressing the opening of registers for clinical, counselling and educational psychologists, the Psychologists Registration Board has been working to establish the necessary regulatory infrastructure that will facilitate the establishment of the Psychologists Register, the register that will accommodate the regulation of all other psychology specialisms.
The first element of this regulatory infrastructure is the setting of the Standards of Proficiency that will articulate the knowledge and skills required – at the threshold level – for entry into practice across all the remaining psychology specialisms. The Board’s drafting process has been layered and multi-faceted with input from national and international experts in professional regulation, education quality assurance and psychology, along with continued stakeholder engagement during late Autumn 2025 and Spring 2026.
The Psychologists Registration Board anticipates that it will be in a position to open a public stakeholder consultation process on its draft Standards of Proficiency for Psychologists and Criteria for Education and Training Programmes for Psychologists during Autumn 2026.
The Psychologists Registration Board, in designing a model to facilitate the regulation of psychologists in Ireland and ensure protection of the professional title ‘psychologist’ has laid out a two-stage implementation process. This means that regulation will be introduced in phases whereby three registers will be introduced initially for clinical, counselling and educational psychologists, to be followed by a fourth register that will accommodate all other psychology specialisms.
In the implementation of both phases, there will be a period of time when registers will be opened for clinical, counselling and educational psychologists only, while work is progressing on opening of the final, Psychologists Register. At this stage, it is not possible to know the length of time this will be. There are a range of variables that will impact on this: when the first three registers open, when threshold standards for entry into the Psychologists Register are set, and the length of time taken to establish the education and training pathways for entry to the Psychologists Register.
It is important to stress that the protection of the title psychologist will not be legally enforceable until the two-year transition period following the opening of the Psychologists Register is concluded. As such, any practitioner that will be accommodated for regulation by this fourth register is still able to use the title ‘psychologist’ up until this point. The opening of registers for clinical, counselling and educational psychologists will not have an impact on this.
Additionally, CORU has developed bespoke communication resources – both paper and audiovisual – that detail the regulatory model, the staged approach of its implementation and the impacts of this on the use of the protected title. These are available on the PSRB webpage on the CORU website here: Psychologists Registration Board - Coru, along with inclusion as part of the Regulatory Essentials suite of resources available here: Regulatory Essentials - Coru.
CORU continues to use its social media platforms to communicate and update on the progress being made towards the introduction of regulation and is working in partnership with the Psychological Society of Ireland in dissemination of information to the profession and the wider public.