I propose to take Questions Nos. 349, 351 and 368 together. The general background to the remuneration of clinical psychologists employed by the health boards, and in the wider public health service, was described in the course of the Adjournment Debate on the motion of Deputy Michael Creed on 24 June. The matter was also raised in the Parliamentary Questions of Deputies Tony Gregory and Richard Bruton on that same date. The most recent position is that three meetings have been held between representatives of the management side and IMPACT, the trade union representing the clinical psychologists. Those meetings were held on 9 and 28 July and 6 September at the premises of the Local Government Staff Negotiations Board.
The last claim which the clinical psychologists had lodged under the scheme of conciliation and arbitration for the Local Government — Health Services was in 1985. That claim was heard in July 1987 and an Arbitration Board report (Number 132) issued in July 1988, the findings of which were duly implemented. This claim had arisen specifically from a previous award to psychologists in the Department of Education. Over the years which followed, psychologists in the Department of Education secured a number of further pay increases under their own specific links with other groups in the Civil Service. These increases were not applied to clinical psychologists under the health boards. No claim for application of these increases was lodged until 1992 and it is that claim, seeking restoration of traditional relationships with the relevant Department of Education grades, which is now under discussion.
The management side in the negotiations have already agreed in principle to full restoration of the traditional relationship with the Department of Education pay scales, without phasing, with effect from 1 January 1994. This would translate into an instantaneous pay increase of approximately 24-27 per cent for health board clinical psychologists with effect from that date, depending on their grade.
