Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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106. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will examine the challenges facing students of psychology who need to study for up to eight years before they are fully qualified for many disciplines within psychology; if he will consider a particular subvention for these students considering the urgent need for psychologists in both the health and education systems; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58589/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Supporting the Department of Health with their health workforce planning work, and ensuring an appropriate pipeline of qualified healthcare workers within Ireland, is a major priority for my Department.

The Student Grant Scheme (SUSI) is the principal financial support provided to students, and the Programme for Government contains commitments to review SUSI eligibility criteria, adjacency rates and postgraduate grant supports and this commenced in March of this year and is due to be completed shortly. In addition, Budget 2021 provided for enhanced postgraduate supports from the current 2021/22 academic year, and an additional €15m was secured in Budget 2022 to enhance the existing financial supports under the Student Grant Scheme. Other supports that are available through the Department of Further & Higher Education Research & Innovation are the Student Assistance Fund, the Fund for Students with a Disability and a Student Support Scheme which provides supports for students who are in the international protection system. A range of targeted measures for underrepresented groups also exist in the PATH programme.

The National Health and Social Care Professions Office in the HSE have advised me that the Psychology Project Team developed a report which recommended the development of a workforce plan for psychology and the creation of a National Psychology Placement Office which has yet to be established. Implementation of the recommendations in this report is being considered by the HSE in the context of resource requirements and the ongoing estimates process. The implementation of the report’s recommendations and the creation of a National Psychology Placement Office are matters for the HSE.