Munster Technological University has announced the appointment by the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly of MTU academic Professor Muiris O’Laoire to CORU, the health and social care professionals council.

CORU is the body responsible for regulating health and social care professions with one of its statutory functions as the approval of education and training for a range of professions in the health and social care field.

Professor O’Laoire, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Health and Social Sciences, is a well-known national and international scholar and researcher in linguistics and early years education with a wide experience of national and international education standards and systems. He joins his MTU colleague Dr Patrick McGarty who is also a recent appointee by Minister Donnelly to the board of CORU. A public policy specialist Dr McGarty has lectured extensively in social care and public policy in Ireland and abroad. A recipient of the Social Care Ireland Award for his services to education, Dr McGarty served as Chair of the National Standards Committee on Social Care Education.

Welcoming the appointments, Dr Aisling Sharkey, Head of Department of Social Sciences at MTU (Kerry Campus) stated "I wish to congratulate Muiris and Pat.  The appointments are a testament to their academic and professional standing in the higher education sector and both colleagues are great ambassadors for the School of Health and Social Sciences and the wider MTU community".