Trainee Specialist Registration

The Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2020, amends various sections of the Medical Practitioners Act 2007, including the criteria for eligibility for access to the Trainee Specialist Division. Under the amendments, the requirement to have been awarded the equivalent of a Certificate of Experience (i.e. undertaken an internship which Council considers to be the equivalent of an Irish internship) is removed.  This means that once a doctor holds, or is eligible for General Registration, they will automatically be eligible for registration for the Trainee Specialist Division.

Doctors with Trainee Specialist Registration are on recognised training programmes and practise solely within the confines of posts allocated by the Health Service Executive (HSE), in conjunction with the national postgraduate training bodies. Registration for the Trainee Specialist Division is automatic once your training post details have been updated correctly by both your clinical site and your training body via the HSE’s DIME database. When your training post details have expired, your registration will automatically default back to the General Division.

If you are on the General Division and believe you should be on the Trainee Specialist Division, please ensure both your clinical site and your training body have updated your details via the HSE’s DIME database.   

Please note that the Medical Council can no longer provide individual emails for eligibility to the Trainee Specialist Division. Your General Registration certificate (past or present) OR evidence of your eligibility email for the General Division should be provided to your Post Graduate Training Body.