Ireland

We manage external relations with stakeholders and policymakers including the Northern Ireland Executive and organisations with an interest in child health. Our friendly team is here to make sure members across Ireland have a voice.

Our team

The team in Northern Ireland engages with senior policy makers in Department of Health and Education and other key statutory and voluntary bodies on College priorities, including State of Child Health NI recommendations, Facing the Future service standards and workforce census.

About our team

Officer and Regional Leads

Dr Ray Nethercott is the Officer for Ireland, representing members in both Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland at RCPCH Council. The Regional Lead for Northern Ireland is Dr Mugilan Anandarajan, and the position of Regional Lead for the Republic of Ireland is currently vacant.

About and contacts

Ireland Committee

This committee allows paediatricians to act as advocates for the College in Northern Ireland in relation to media, public affairs and health policy work. It offers input and advice on member focused activity such as courses and events.

About committee

Useful resources for RCPCH Ireland members

Ulster Paediatric Society

Irish Paediatric Association

Northern Ireland Medical and Dental Training Agency

Department of Health Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People

Northern Ireland's Stormont building, with tulips

Northern Ireland Assembly election 2022

Ahead of the election on 5 May, we as paediatricians called on the incoming Assembly to create and embed a child rights-based Health and Social Care system and make child health and wellbeing a national priority. Our manifesto outlined four key actions.

We invited members and young people to get involved in our campaign, which is now closed.

About our manifesto and election work

Contacting us

For all enquiries, email us at enquiries.ireland@rcpch.ac.uk. Please address any mail to RCPCH Ireland, Unit 92228, PO Box 1213, Belfast, BT1 9JY (please note this is for correspondence only).

You can call our Policy and Public Affairs Lead for Northern Ireland, John McBride on 028 9693 6901.

For other key College contacts, use our main contact us page.

About our team

Northern Ireland changes to ways of working - FAQs (November 2020)

Latest news relating to Ireland

More news

Media response

12 May 2022

RCPCH welcomes Baroness Hallett’s letter to Prime Minister to call for children to be included as part of COVID-19 inquiry

Baroness Hallett, chair of the COVID-19 public inquiry has written to the Prime Minister to request the terms of reference are expanded to include a focus on children. This follows a four-week consultation on the inquiry draft terms of reference which received over 20,000 responses, including from R...

Press release

12 May 2022

RCPCH calls on incoming NI MLAs to prioritise children and form an Executive

Following the Northern Ireland elections in early May, and as parties look to form an Executive, our Officer for Ireland responds.

Announcement

11 May 2022

The national PAFTA winners 2022

Chair of the Trainees’ Committee, Dr Laura Kelly is delighted to announce the winners of this year’s national PAFTAs, celebrating paediatric training achievements across the UK.

Latest resources relating to work in Ireland

Resource

NI Executive Children and Young People’s Strategy 3 Year Delivery Plan - consultation response

In 2021 the Department of Education published the overarching 10 Year Children and Young People’s Strategy (2020 – 2030) on behalf of the NI Executive. Subsequently, in 2022, the Executive produced an initial draft three Year Delivery Plan (2021-24) and published for public consultation.

Document

Training principle of the month 8: Educational supervision is of high quality and provides consistency

This month, Dr Emma Dyer and Dr Diarmuid McLaughlin take us through some case studies of different forms of supervision and a quick presentation which you can also use to highlight the importance of the Paediatrician of the Future document. We also hear from Dr Shilpa Shah and Dr Kumudini Gomez abou...

Document

COVID-19 and paediatric training

Since March 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption to training and assessment in paediatrics in the UK as well as significant stresses to everyone's working and personal lives. We hope that, two years on, we are beginning to return to normal or at least to readjust to a new n...