Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for the presentation. I will go through it as fast as I can. The presentation mentions the college requesting a 10% increase on the entrance for the BST in psychiatry and the HSE said it will only be a 5% increase. Why is that? That is the first question. There is a shortage of everything here but it is saying to keep that shortage. I will explain why I am looking at that.

That is the first one.

I very much welcome that the page on solutions in the submission refers to ensuring "access to assessment and intervention with an appropriate menu of interventions available to people with mental illness based on need, not geography or ability to pay". That is also contained in the Sláintecare report that we hope to drive on also. It might be a little thing but it is progressive.

The submission also stated:

barriers to training posts in psychiatry could be lifted. The college has poured significant resources into promoting psychiatry as a speciality... we are told that there is a limit to the number of trainee doctors we can appoint. This is despite the fact that there remain significant vacancies...

Who advised the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland of that and why is it the case? I cannot understand it. The multidisciplinary teams always seem to need to be specialist or consultant-led. Can we not think outside the box? In the Portuguese model nurses are allowed to prescribe medicine because they got an opportunity for promotion up through the grades.

The one thing that really grieves me is the lack of common sense on recruitment when it comes to retirements etc. Who makes the rules meaning that we have to wait for the individual to retire? Do the witnesses feel they are being held back on that section?

The specialist groups of faculties include medical psychotherapy. Interestingly I got an email today from an individual who is trying to get an internship and wants to work in CAMHS, work with adults and work as part of a psychiatric care team. However, the reply from the HSE is that it is not recognised at the moment. Therefore the individual cannot even get a chance to progress. They are more or less forced to go to England or somewhere else to get that training. I cannot understand why that is. If it is part of the curriculum and part of what we have to do, it runs contrary to everything to have people who want to work in the system but are being told they will not be able to qualify in this country. I think that is absolutely ludicrous.