Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone here today. It has been a very interesting discussion. I will have a question for Beat 102-103 later but I will start with CARE. The representatives have done a very good job today of outlining the huge challenges to their sector. Professionalisation of a role and that pathway becoming a barrier to people taking part is something that we see in other sectors too but in health it is particularly onerous on people and very difficult. It is not only a barrier to diversity but in my previous professional life where unpaid internships became part of the deal and are not available to those of us who do not have someone to pay for us, the research shows you lose an awful lot of women. I am mindful that we are moving into an era of the implementation of Sláintecare and cross-disciplinary teams and, hopefully, a proper model of primary care. It was interesting to hear about the access to psychology services Ireland, APSI, experiment and there being five assistant psychologists, APs with a senior psychologist. In a perfect world, is that AP model the right model? In a perfect world, would the CARE representatives like to see that model progressed or is the version they would like to see in the future more one of in-the-role learning and continuing professional development being recognised as part of the career trajectory so that it could be made more aligned with paid work? In the UK, there is far greater integration of on-site and in-the-role learning as part of particular qualifications or professional registration. They seem to be further down that road than we are. I would generally like to hear more about that APSI model. Was that a primary care type situation?

CARE's opening statement discussed the difference between clinical psychology and the recognition of education and counselling psychology, and different payments or sometimes no payments for particular roles. In light of the movement into new models and Sláintecare, hopefully, it is useful to understand how that came about. How did such a divide come about between clinical education and counselling, a different recognition? Is that something that has evolved from HSE hiring practices? Sometimes that evolves through university practices or recognition by particular hospitals. How has it come about that there is such a dichotomy between disciplines when we seem to need them all?