Written answers

Wednesday, 21 April 2021

Department of Education and Skills

Mental Health Services

Photo of Martin BrowneMartin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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1261. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the investment made into student mental health services over the past three academic years. [20706/21]

Photo of Martin BrowneMartin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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1262. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the current psychological counselling staffing levels across all public higher education institutions. [20707/21]

Photo of Martin BrowneMartin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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1351. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the average salary for one full-time equivalent counselling psychologist; and the estimated amount it would cost to fund one full-time psychological counsellor for every 1,000 students in each higher education institution nationwide. [20708/21]

Photo of Simon HarrisSimon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1261, 1262 and 1351 together.

The support and wellbeing of our students is one of my priorities.

Student services and associated activities are an integral part of the whole student experience at third level, and these services generally fall under a number of headings, particularly ‘Welfare and Guidance’ which includes counselling services, health promotion, careers service, racial and ethnic cultural support.

In 2020, I secured a comprehensive package of financial supports for the Higher Education and Further Education and Training sector to mitigate against the direct financial impact of Covid-19. This package included funding of €3m to underpin wellbeing and mental health and student services in our higher education institutions, and this funding was in addition to the €2m that was allocated in Budget 2020. This funding provided in 2020 is in addition to the funding that institutions were already providing for these services.

The student counsellor salary scale in an Institute of Technology / Technical University ranges from €52,496 to €89,137, while there are more varied salary scales for such staff in the other universities. There were 235,697 students enrolled in the 2019/20 academic year, which would give a total of 235 student counsellors per 1,000 students. Information available from the Higher Education Authority indicates that there are some 108 counselling support service staff in the HEIs, including student counsellors, assistant psychologists, mental health advisors and chaplains, with recruitment ongoing on foot of the additional funding provided in 2020. Some 87 of these staff would be student counsellors. Therefore an additional 148 (235 – 87) student counsellors would need to be appointed to achieve a ratio of one to every 1,000 students. Taking a mid salary point of €68,672, it would cost over €10m annually for these additional staff.

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