Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his question. Psychology covers a wide area. I deal with psychology in the area of mental health provision and my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, deals with it in regard to disability services. I met with representatives of the Psychological Society of Ireland last week to discuss these issues. On average, between clinical psychologists, educational psychologists and counselling psychologists, there are approximately 84 graduates a year. As the Deputy knows, there is a huge differential between clinical psychologist trainees, who get support for their fees and 300 paid hours of placement every year, and other psychologists, who do not get any support and for whom it takes up to nine years to qualify. I will be meeting soon with the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, on this issue. It is very important we support all types of psychology and that we enhance the number of graduates who can qualify every year.

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