Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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313. To ask the Minister for Health the number of assistant psychologists that are currently working on a voluntary capacity within HSE services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28258/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As this Parliamentary Question relates to an operational issue, it is a matter for the HSE. However, members of the Oireachtas are advised that the HSE is currently unable to access the information to answer Parliamentary Questions due to the recent cyber-attack, which has required a temporary shut-down of HSE IT systems. The disruption to service is on-going, and the HSE is working hard to restore its IT capacity and resume normal services. Members of the Oireachtas will be advised as soon as the HSE is again in a position to provide responses to PQs and are encouraged to resubmit their Parliamentary Questions at that point.

Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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314. To ask the Minister for Health his Department’s policy on the recruitment of assistant psychologists in an unpaid capacity by HSE services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28259/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Department has supported the establishment of 114 paid Assistant Psychologist posts within HSE Psychology Services on a pilot basis, with the posts coming on-stream in a phased basis during 2017, and funding of €3.4m being provided for implementation of this important initiative.

The role of Assistant Psychologist is intended to support the provision of psychology services in primary care settings, enabling delivery of early and cost-effective interventions for children and adolescents, and is key to delivering a “stepped care” model in which service users receive the level of required support and/or intervention appropriate to their assessed need.

The employment of Assistant Psychologists in HSE Primary Care Psychology services is intended as a time-limited pilot project and is being independently evaluated. All Assistant Psychologist posts were due to complete their contracts by the end of July 2020 when the evaluation was originally due to be finalised. However, due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was necessary for this evaluation process to be paused during 2020 and, as several months of data was not collected, the HSE report that the initiative has been extended to the end of September 2021, after which a final report and assessment of the pilot project will be completed.

Management of the allocated funding and resources to the pilot initiative, including recruitment of staff to the Assistant Psychologist posts, continue to be matters for which the HSE holds full responsibility, and in which the Department has no direct involvement.