Dr. Shari McDaid:

I am not sure I am best placed to answer the question of the impact it might have in that regard. It is, however, a very welcome development and it helps to facilitate people availing of good-quality counselling psychotherapy but I do not think we have to wait for the regulation in order to increase access. The counselling and primary care service already has quality systems around using outsourced counsellors and psychotherapists and a HSE system is already in place to enable that. We really need to significantly increase funding for the counselling and primary care service. We need a substantial investment in all the options available to increase access.