Ms Marina Dillon:

There is a shortage and I think everyone would agree with that. How one goes about addressing that is another matter. Could it be that a basic grade psychologist, after X amount of years can take on a supervisory role even if he or she is not the senior? My understanding is that after three years of being a basic grade psychologist, a person can then apply to be a senior. Maybe it should be made mandatory. It would have a positive knock-on effect. It would mean the supervisory role was spread across all those who have three or more years experience in the role of a psychologist and would mean more trainees could be supervised. To be honest, as the Deputy can probably see from my opening statement, one of our key points is we should increase the number of places across all doctorates. That is the only way to make up for the deficit of 53% in the HSE.