Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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15. To ask the Minister for Health the number of counselling and educational psychologists required to complete extensive in-service training in order to maintain eligibility for their own jobs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17031/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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In 2015, the HSE established a group to review the eligibility criteria for employment as a psychologist in the Psychological Services.

This review was completed in 2016 and made recommendations which have been accepted in full by the HSE Leadership Team. The group reviewed the care group delineation and decided to move the requirement away from named psychology qualifications solely. Instead, a combination of qualification and placements or supervised work experience will be considered.

The criteria established do not require existing psychologists to undergo supervised work experience to maintain eligibility for their current role. The criteria, which will come into effect in October 2019, are applicable to candidates applying for recruitment competitions. Existing psychologists are only required to have completed the additional placements if they are applicants for recruitment competitions from October 2019 onwards. To be clear, there is no compulsion to complete these placements if an individual is not entering a recruitment process.

The review group did however, recommend that existing psychologists should be facilitated to acquire the necessary supervised work experiences, should they wish to compete in any future recruitment competitions.