Speech and language therapist in Ireland: CORU route (2026)

• Your degree is in speech and language therapy (speech-language pathology) and qualifies you to practise in the country that awarded it.
• That country's regulator or ministry signs a form confirming you are eligible to practise there; you need not hold live registration.
• Where SLT is not a regulated profession in your training country, a former employer verifies at least one year of practice within the last ten.
• Your training covered both communication and swallowing (eating, drinking and swallowing) for children and adults, as standard 5.20 of the Board's standards requires.
• Your course included linguistics, phonetics, language acquisition and sociolinguistics, which standard 5.15 names explicitly.
• You can show supervised clinical placements, with hours and settings described by your university.
• You reach the Board's English level: IELTS Academic 8.0 (7.5 minimum per element), OET Speech Pathology at the stated grades, or Cambridge C1 Advanced grade C with at least 185, unless an exemption applies.
• You can pass Garda eVetting and supply police certificates, and you meet CORU's fit and proper test.

Check your route with the route finder

• CORUCORU, Health and Social Care Professionals Council

  Allied health and social care professions

  How to register with the CORU

1. 1

   Accept that there is no shortcut route

   CORU's fast-track table covers nine professions, and speech and language therapy is not one of them; its Commonly Aligned Standards leaflet names medical scientists and speech and language therapists as the two exceptions. UK, Australian, US and Indian graduates alike go through the full Speech and Language Therapists Registration Board assessment, so plan for it from the start.
2. 2

   Map your degree against Domain 5

   The Board's 2018 standards of proficiency have 21 professional knowledge and skills items. The ones assessors test hardest are 5.3 (developmental and acquired disorders of speech, language, communication and swallowing), 5.14 (eating, drinking and swallowing and their effect on quality of life), 5.15 (linguistics and phonetics), 5.17 (language and literacy) and 5.20 (assessing and managing both paediatric and adult clients). Write a short cross-reference from each to a module or placement before you upload anything.
3. 3

   Get placement detail out of your university early

   Assessors need to see where you practised, with which client groups, for how many hours and under whose supervision. Ask your university for a stamped syllabus and placement record that splits child and adult work and shows any dysphagia, fluency, voice or AAC experience. This step causes most delays for SLTs, because many universities do not keep caseload-level records and take weeks to reply.
4. 4

   Fill gaps with post-qualification evidence

   CORU considers experience and lifelong learning before it calls a difference substantial. If your degree was child-focused, a signed employer letter describing adult stroke or head-and-neck swallowing work, or a recognised dysphagia course, can close the gap. Describe caseloads in your own words without identifiable patient details.
5. 5

   Reach IELTS 8.0 or OET Speech Pathology

   The Board's language level is written into standard 5.21: IELTS Academic 8.0 with no element under 7.5. The alternatives are OET Speech Pathology (B, 400, in three sub-tests and B, 350, in the fourth) or Cambridge C1 Advanced at grade C with a score of 185 or more. Many applicants miss 7.5 in writing on a first attempt, so book early and keep the result within its two-year validity.
6. 6

   Assemble the standard CORU paperwork

   The non-clinical documents (certified identity and qualification copies, competent authority and employer verification forms, a sworn statutory declaration, police certificates and the eVetting form) are the same for every CORU profession. The CORU regulator guide on this site lists them in full; submit them together through the CORU portal with the recognition fee.
7. 7

   Respond fast during assessment

   Once CORU confirms your file is complete, an SLT practitioner and an SLT educator write a joint recommendation. Their questions usually concern placement hours with adults, dysphagia competence or how your programme handled linguistics. Reply with evidence rather than explanation, because the Board decides on what the file shows.
8. 8

   Choose a compensation measure if one is offered

   If the Board finds a substantial difference, you decide between an aptitude test held in Ireland (€500) and a supervised adaptation period of up to three years under a registered speech and language therapist. Adaptation needs a placement and supervisor you arrange yourself, plus Board approval of a written proposal before you start; the HSE pay scales include a speech and language therapy adaptation grade, but whether a service hosts one is up to the employer.
9. 9

   Register, then plan your first renewal

   With recognition and vetting complete, CORU enters you on the Speech and Language Therapists Register and you may use either protected title. The SLT renewal date is 31 October, so if you join in late summer your first renewal comes within weeks, and CPD records are expected from then on.

• Documentary assessment, not an entry exam

  Speech and language therapists do not sit a national licensing test in Ireland. Two members of the profession read your evidence against the Board's standards, and only if they find a substantial difference, typically in adult swallowing or paediatric communication, is any test involved.

• Aptitude test

  Offered only as a compensation measure, it examines the specific gaps the Board identified, for example dysphagia assessment and management, and can include Irish professional rules. CORU states it is held in Ireland, offered within six months, costs €500 and may be repeated once.

• Supervised adaptation period

  The alternative to the test: practice in an Irish service under a registered SLT for up to three years, sometimes with academic modules. The Board must approve your proposal before you begin, and reports from you and your supervisor at the end decide the outcome. One repeat is allowed across both measures.

• The Speech and Language Therapists Registration Board sets the highest English standard in CORU and writes it into its standards of proficiency (5.21): IELTS Academic 8.0 overall with no element below 7.5.
• Accepted alternatives are OET Speech Pathology with B (400) in three sub-tests and B (350) in the fourth, or Cambridge C1 Advanced at grade C with a minimum score of 185. CORU explains the higher bar by the profession's need for detailed knowledge of language structure, syntax and grammar.
• Under CORU's language policy for applications from 8 May 2026, you may be exempt if your SLT qualification and placements were delivered in English or Irish and awarded within the last 2 years (confirmed by your university), or if you have practised as an SLT through English for 2 of the past 5 years in a country where English is the sole official language.
• There is no Commonly Aligned exemption route for SLTs in practice, because the profession is not on the fast-track list.
• Results must be no more than two years old at submission. IELTS has to be taken in person; OET's online and at-home formats are accepted. CORU will combine at most two sittings with the same provider within six months, and does not accept IELTS One Skill Retake or single OET sub-tests.

Estimate your total cost

• English first: the 8.0 overall and 7.5 per element profile is the step SLT applicants most often have to repeat, so allow one to three test dates.
• Expect several weeks for a university to produce stamped placement records that separate paediatric and adult hours.
• CORU acknowledges a submission within a month; anything missing must arrive within six months or the file closes.
• From a complete file, CORU's policy target for the Board's decision is 3 months, with a possible extension to 4. No SLT applicant skips this stage, including UK graduates.
• If a dysphagia or paediatric gap leads to a compensation measure, add up to six months to reach an aptitude test, or the length of an approved adaptation placement (maximum three years).

HSE consolidated pay scales from 1 June 2026. Private practice and independent providers set their own rates.

• Speech and language therapist (staff grade)

  €45,514 to €65,068

• Speech and language therapist, senior

  €65,197 to €76,767

• Speech and language therapist, clinical specialist

  €72,119 to €83,689

• Speech and language therapist, manager

  €78,592 to €94,350

• Speech and language therapy adaptation grade

  €39,590

• HSE children's disability network teams and primary care services.
• Acute hospitals, including stroke, ENT and dysphagia services.
• Disability service providers and special schools.
• Older persons' and rehabilitation services.
• Private practice.

• Speech & Language Therapist is listed under SOC 2223 on the Critical Skills Occupations List, so an SLT job offer of at least two years can support a Critical Skills Employment Permit.
• The general threshold for listed occupations is €40,904 (€36,848 if you qualified in the last 12 months). For HSE and section 38 posts covered by a public sector pay agreement, the agreement rate applies instead; the HSE staff grade SLT scale starts at €45,514 from 1 June 2026.
• A speech and language therapy adaptation grade post is paid at €39,590, so check with the employer and the Department how such a role would be treated before relying on it for a permit.
• Permit fees, family reunification, Stamp 4 and the General Employment Permit are covered on the Ireland country guide.

1. 1

   Your Gulf SLT licence is not recognised as such. The Board assesses the degree you trained on, so Gulf experience counts only as post-qualification evidence on a signed employer verification form.

2. 2

   Gulf posts are often paediatric, in rehabilitation centres, schools or autism services. If that describes your career, the Board will look closely at adult and swallowing competence (standards 5.14 and 5.20); hospital dysphagia or stroke work, if you have it, belongs at the front of your employer letter.

3. 3

   Arabic and English caseloads are relevant evidence of standards 2.2 and 5.7 (adapting communication to language and culture, practice in multicultural societies), but they do not help with the English requirement: Gulf countries are not English-only, so the 2-of-5-years exemption does not apply.

4. 4

   The competent authority form must come from the country where you qualified, not from your Gulf regulator, although CORU may ask your Gulf regulator for a statement of good standing.

5. 5

   Order police certificates from each Gulf state where you lived one year and one day or more since turning 18; they must be no older than 12 months when you apply.

• Application plan with every step, fee and deadline

• Document checklist tailored to you, and a review of each document before upload

• Timeline built around the regulator's closure windows and document validity periods

• Help completing the application forms accurately and consistently

• Support with profession-specific evidence, such as the HCPC standards of proficiency mapping

• Guidance on certificates of good standing, references and certified translations

• Preparation for identity checks and declarations on health and character

• Tracking your application and help responding to regulator requests

• Next steps after the decision: exams, adaptation, PIN or licence and your first job

Regulators make all registration decisions and set all fees. Our fee is separate from the regulator's fees, exam fees and translation costs.

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