Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I have raised, and indeed have campaigned for some years on, the plight of people studying psychology and trying to get doctorates in psychology. We have a chronic deficit of psychologists in terms of assessments for children with special needs in education, health and in many other areas.

In fairness, the Government responded to the campaigning of psychologists by announcing funding for counselling psychologists who had not been funded and who were paid shocking fees - €10,000 and sometimes €15,000. However, for some of those counselling psychologists who were depending on getting that funding this year, it now turns out that it will not arrive until next year. Some of these people are working two jobs while studying or on placement and are not getting paid for that. They are in very significant debt. They are asking that the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, would ensure that the funding comes this year and not next year.

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