Almost 2,000 people in Ireland are successfully trained as emergency medical technicians (now to be known as paramedics) and over 200 of those have passed the national exam overseen by the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council (PHECC).
The first cohort of 16 advanced paramedics, many of them with a management and training background in the ambulance services around the State, graduated from UCD with higher diplomas last month.
Another cohort is currently undergoing the final element of training, which includes a seven-week internship, and a third cohort will be undergoing training in December.
The training a paramedic must undergo in order to satisfy the PHECC standard is, the body insists, rigorous.
It has rejected criticism from some quarters that the level of training involved may not be sufficient to allow paramedics carry out certain procedures and to give certain medication.
Prof Paul Finucane, formerly director of competence assurance at the Medical Council of Ireland, conducted an external review of the body's examination and "was of the opinion that the examination is of as high a standard as any that he is aware of in the health sector in Ireland today", PHECC says.
In addition, PHECC says it has trained 90 examiners "which include many committed medical practitioners and nurses".
The regulatory body recognises two training institutions, the National Ambulance Training School (Nats), which conducts its training in conjunction with UCD, and also the Dublin Fire Brigade Training School, which is affiliated with the Royal College of Surgeons.
"Both institutions are subject to rigorous accreditation requirements," according to PHECC. It also says Irish paramedics are more highly trained than colleagues with Basic Life Support status in Britain, North America and Australasia.
Those on the new register, governed by PHECC, will have to commit to codes of practice and ethics, to the highest professional standards, and to continuing professional development.
Paramedics will join pharmacists, nurses, doctors, dentists and opticians, who also have statutory professional registers.
Useful addresses: www.dohc.ie; www.phecc.ie; http://www.irishfireservices.com/