Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We know the crisis point we are at regarding therapeutic services for children, such as psychology. That has an impact on our disability services, child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, and schools. Families are telling us we simply are not supporting them with what they need. It was announced in the budget that psychology traineeships for counselling psychologists would be funded in the same way as clinical psychologists. That means that, when they are doing their traineeships, they get 60% towards their university fees and a salary. However, educational psychologists have been left out. There are three streams, only one of which was funded up until now. People received a salary for the hundreds of hours they worked and funding towards their fees. Counselling psychologists will now get that funding, but educational psychologists have been left out. I do not see the sense in that. It costs €15,000 a year after people have done their undergraduate degree. It is a huge amount of money.

No funding was available for additional places for students to do traineeships in the first place. There was an announcement last year regarding a significant increase in the number of medical places in Irish medical schools over the past five years. A total of 260 extra places are now available. The Psychological Society of Ireland has proposed that there be 50 trainee psychology places over five years with funding of €2.45 million. What an impact that would have when it comes to securing therapeutic services and psychologists for our children and disability services. I understand the mix-up is coming from the Department of Education because it has a role in this. I ask the Deputy Leader to examine this issue. Can it be addressed in the context of budget 2023?