Ireland’s emergency care regulator calls for new law to strengthen its powers
The Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council says it cannot suspend practitioners or remove them from its register under its current powers.
Ireland’s Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council has urged lawmakers to pass a new law strengthening its oversight of paramedics and other emergency care practitioners, RTÉ reported on 21 October 2026. The council says gaps in its current powers create a risk to public safety.
PHECC director Richard Lodge made the case in an opening statement to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health. He said the legislation underpinning the regulator was no longer fit for purpose and created an ‘unacceptable risk to public safety’. The date of the committee statement was not specified in RTÉ’s report.
Powers PHECC wants over practitioner registration
The council registers around 7,000 practitioners, including just under 2,500 deployed by the National Ambulance Service. It says it can advise, admonish or censure a practitioner, but cannot place conditions on their registration, suspend them or remove them from the register. In some cases, RTÉ reported, PHECC must rely on an employer or service provider to restrict a practitioner’s work.
PHECC is seeking stronger fitness-to-practise sanctions through a comprehensive Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Regulation Bill. It also wants greater flexibility in managing its register and a modern governance structure. Those changes would require new legislation; the council’s call does not itself change its powers.
Professional titles and service providers
The proposed bill would give stronger legal protection to titles such as ‘paramedic’ and ‘advanced paramedic’, according to PHECC. The council also wants clearer authority to oversee and sanction service providers. It says the existing law has not kept pace with changes in emergency care, including community paramedicine.
PHECC’s legislation page identifies its establishment order, S.I. No. 109 of 2000, and a 2004 amendment, S.I. No. 575 of 2004, as part of its current legal framework. The council says it has raised the need for legislative change with the Department of Health for more than a decade and is asking the health committee to support urgent prioritisation of a new bill.
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Sources and context
- Call for new law to regulate emergency care practitionersRTÉ News
- Legislation and the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care CouncilPre-Hospital Emergency Care Council
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.