New regulations clarify 'dietician' and 'speech therapist' titles for public

The Minister for Health has signed two sets of regulations aimed at protecting the public who use the services of Dietitians and Speech and Language Therapists.

From now on two variants of the titles can only be used by qualified professionals registered with Health and Social Care Professionals Council (CORU).

The new regulations come into effect today.

"Currently in Ireland the titles of Dietitian and Speech and Language Therapist are protected under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005, meaning that they can only be used by qualified professionals, registered with the proper registration boards," Minister Harris said.

“The new regulations, which come into effect today, give further protection to the public.

"They ensure that from now on the title of Dietician, spelt with the letter ‘c’ (a variant title of Dietitian) and the title of Speech Therapist (a variant title of Speech and Language Therapist) can also only be used by qualified professionals.

“This is an important step to protect the public who use these services.

These new regulations empower the Health and Social Care Professionals Council (CORU) to initiate a criminal prosecution should an unregistered person misuse the newly protected variant titles.

The Minister’s decision to prescribe the variant titles came on foot of consultation with the Health and Social Care Professionals Council and both registration boards.

Digital Desk