Ms Jean Manahan:

Why are psychologists and psychiatrists not trained in psychotherapy? Some psychiatrists and psychologists choose to further train as a psychotherapist. Ms Anne Tansey is a psychologist but she is also trained as a psychotherapist. It does not follow as they are two separate professions. The parallel would be a solicitor who decides to train as a barrister or a medical professional who decides to take on another specialism. Since 1990, there is the Strasbourg convention on psychotherapy which makes the point that psychotherapy is a separate scientific, independent and free profession. That is important. I happen to know psychiatrists who also happen to be psychotherapists. There is a presumption that all do psychotherapy but they do not. That is the point I was trying to make.

We are very much engaged with the HSE. With the lifting of the recruitment moratorium, there is a more positive move in terms of employing more psychotherapists and more counsellors. There is movement afoot. Hopefully, we will see those numbers increasing.