Specialty recognition application process remains ‘paused’

The Medical Council’s specialty recognition application process remains “paused” with no date currently available for its reopening.

The application mechanism has been temporarily closed since late 2022. The last specialty recognised by the Council was military medicine in 2015.

Last month, a Medical Council spokesperson told the Medical Independent (MI): “The current specialty recognition process is paused to new applications whilst the current process is reviewed. At present there is no date for it to be reopened. The ongoing discussions with the Department [of Health] relate to workforce planning and the needs of the health service in relation to specialty recognition.”

A Department spokesperson commented: “The Department of Health supports the development of a robust process for assessing requests for the recognition of additional medical specialties supported by strong underpinning principles, including but not limited to, patient safety, population need, and workforce implications. This work remains ongoing.”

In May, MI reported on concerns surrounding the lack of specialty recognition for interventional radiology (IR). The RCSI Faculty of Radiologists and Radiation Oncologists described specialty recognition for IR as an “urgent” requirement to support the training pathway and workforce planning.

The Faculty said the lack of specialty status for IR “continues to create significant and avoidable risks” for patients and the healthcare system. These risks relate to workforce and service fragility, particularly in emergency and out-of-hours IR, where lack of recognition “undermines investment and staffing”. The Faculty said it would continue to develop the national IR training pathway and advocate for IR’s “central role” in Irish healthcare.

The Council rejected the Faculty’s application for IR specialty status in June 2025 following a five-year process.

Two applications for specialty recognition have been rejected in the last five years (forensic psychiatry in 2021 and IR in 2025) and no applications have been withdrawn.