Ms Marina Dillon:

Thank you for inviting CARE for Psychologists in Ireland here today to discuss the difficulties facing psychologists. CARE’s plan has always been to raise awareness of the current situation for early career psychologists in Ireland. We argue that the current employment practices within this sector are unjust, discriminatory and in need of reform. Given the current climate in Ireland with incredibly long waiting lists for child and adult mental health services as well as assessments for special needs, we propose that the expertise and experience of our psychology graduate population be utilised to help address this crisis.

Unlike in the UK where there are numerous and various paid roles for psychology degree and master's graduates, in Ireland, paid roles are extremely rare and much sought after. State-run agencies, including the HSE, advertise to fill unpaid assistant psychology roles, requiring years of experience and a minimum master's level education to even apply. Due to the requirement to often work for free, many psychology graduates are ultimately unable to pursue their chosen career as they cannot fund

years of such experience leading to elitism within the sector. In general, assistant psychology roles are temporary, often one to two-year contracts, providing no job security or progression. Many of our graduates are left with no choice but to move to the UK and further afield to find relevant employment despite our ever-increasing waiting lists for mental health and disability services here in Ireland.

In general, in order to follow a career within psychology in Ireland, a person is required to complete a four-year degree, a master's and roughly two years relevant work experience, which is hugely difficult to get and often unpaid, to gain a place on any of the professional psychology doctorate courses, which involve a further three years of study. Places on these courses are notoriously difficult to attain meaning that most applicants will apply numerous times before being accepted, if ever. Many, however, after years of investment and sacrifice are left with no choice but to give up on their pursuit of a career in psychology.

This trend combined with the high turnover of undergraduate psychology students being accepted into colleges annually nationwide has only served to create a huge bottleneck of highly qualified postgraduate students desperately trying to earn a place on the course. This is cause for much frustration, angst and disillusionment. It involves not knowing if there will ever be an end in sight, not knowing how long more you can afford to wait to get on the course and having to put your life and future plans on hold, etc. Huge sacrifices have to be made and, frankly, are expected. A Vision for Change recommended the establishment of an assistant psychologist grade within the HSE as a stepping stone to assist with career progression into professional training programmes. Consequently, in 2017, the Department of Health provided funding for a two-year pilot involving the provision of 114 assistant psychologists in primary care services for children and young people who earn €25,000 per year. A new panel of assistant psychologists was then formed in April 2019 with data suggesting that the assistant psychologist project is having a positive effect on services. Despite the clear need for clinical support, the HSE is currently looking for expressions of interests in assistant psychology posts that expire at the end of September 2021 - three months time - which seems completely illogical given that we need them more than ever.

I will now turn my attention to one of the most serious and pressing issues within our profession, namely, the funding inequity among trainee psychologists. It is time we put an end to the glaring inequalities that exist between professional psychology doctoral training courses in Ireland by funding both the educational and counselling psychology doctoral courses in line with clinical psychology doctorates. Those interested in pursuing careers in psychology tend to be channelled down the clinical psychology route as they are the only funded courses even if their preference is to become an educational or counselling psychologist. This should not be the case. The clinical psychology route is a sponsored programme entailing the payment of a trainee salary, which is €108,000 in total over the three-year programme, and a 60% contribution towards fees along with a signed contract to work for a further three years post-graduation with the sponsoring agency. In stark contrast, trainee counselling and educational psychologists must work a minimum of 250 days, which is approximately 2,000 plus hours, unpaid and pay fees of up to €45,000 on the doctorate while not receiving any income for the work they provide. Considering the fact that both clinical, counselling and educational psychologists are entitled to apply for staff grade psychology posts within the HSE post-qualification and are put on the same pay scale in post, it is only right and fair that they are treated equally while in training.

It must also be said that prior to entering a doctoral programme, most of these trainees had been working either in low-income jobs or as volunteers to gain the relevant clinical experience needed to secure a place on a doctoral course and so are already in a very vulnerable financial position. It is even more of a financial hardship for those trainees with families and mortgages to pay since they are embarking on what are full-time doctoral studies with little free time to earn a salary. Many of these trainees have to take on additional part-time work in the evenings and weekends to resource themselves. Given their busy academic and placement timetable, this leads to insufficient time to rest and study thus negatively impacting their mental health. The possibility of burnout is a real concern. It must also be stressed that the current situation of no funding restricts applications from minority groups and those from low socioeconomic backgrounds favouring those from middle to upper-income backgrounds instead. It drives elitism.

To conclude, CARE for Psychologists in Ireland calls for equity of funding for trainee counselling and educational psychologists by setting up the proposed national psychology placement office as a matter of urgency and an increase in the number of places on all psychology doctoral programmes.

We also call for the expansion and extension of the role of assistant psychologist to help address the mental health and waiting list crisis, an end to unpaid, voluntary assistant psychology posts, the provision of clinical placements on all master's psychology courses and practical placements during the final year of accredited undergraduate psychology degrees, and more transparency and consistency in the application process for clinical doctorates.

A core value of psychology is the promotion of well-being and quality of life. Therefore, it seems like a tragic irony that the profession is not doing that for its own. Many early career psychologists are working to support individuals suffering with hopelessness and mental health difficulties while the current positions and systems in place give them little to feel hopeful or confident about in their own lives. Far too many highly competent and compassionate people have had to give up on their dreams of pursuing psychology and left the profession for this very reason.

I thank the committee for taking the time to listen. We welcome whatever questions members may have.