Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 10 Jun 2003

Vol. 568 No. 1

Written Answers. - Psychological Service.

Joe Costello

Question:

523 Mr. Costello asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of clinical psychology posts in the Eastern Regional Health Authority Area; the number of posts vacant at present; the number of training places available annually; the number recommended by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15386/03]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Martin)

According to the latest census figures, a total of 157 psychologists are employed in the Eastern Regional Health Authority area. This represents an increase of 11.3% over the end of the 2001 position in wholetime equivalent terms. A breakdown of this figure is set out in the table below.

Information on vacancies of health service personnel is not collected on a routine basis by my Department. Responsibility for human resource planning, including the monitoring and filling of vacant psychologist posts in the eastern region, rests with the regional chief executive of the East ern Regional Health Authority, ERHA. The regional chief executive, in managing the workforce in his region, is responsible for determining the appropriate staffing mix and the precise grades of staff to be employed in line with service plan priorities, subject to overall employment levels remaining within the approved regional employment ceiling. My Department has therefore requested information from the regional chief executive of the Eastern Regional Health Authority on the number of vacancies that exist for clinical psychologists in the eastern region and this information will be sent to the Deputy as soon as it becomes available.

At present, there are about 105 clinical psychologists undertaking post-graduate training in the State. Over 60 students are enrolled on the Psychological Society of Ireland's clinical psychologist post-graduate training diploma, 24 are enrolled on the doctoral programme in clinical psychology at TCD – 12 in first year and 12 in second year – and 19 are enrolled on the doctoral programme in clinical psychology at UCD – ten in second year and nine in third year. Since end-1999 there has been a threefold increase, from 26 to 83, in the number of trainee clinical psychologists employed in the health services. It is understood that both the National University of Ireland, Galway and the University of Limerick have plans to introduce doctoral programmes in clinical psychology in 2003 with an intake of a further 20 students in total.

My Department is committed to working on an ongoing basis with health agencies, educational providers and the education authorities to ensure adequate provision of training places in clinical psychology consistent with the medium-term human resource requirements of the health services and the important recommendations on investment in training and education detailed in the Action Plan for People Management published in November 2002. A particular priority is to secure the best return in terms of graduate output on the very significant financial resources currently invested in psychology training. In this context, the Department has recently initiated a review, to be completed in the coming months, with a sub-group of the directors of HR Group of the current training model for post-graduate psychology training. The main objective of the review is to underpin the maintenance and development of training provision on a planned and sustainable basis into the future.

The Deputy may wish to note that other efforts have been undertaken to improve staffing levels in the psychological services, both at local and national level. Relevant developments include the recruitment of psychologists from overseas by the health boards, the introduction of a fast track working visa scheme for health and social care professionals including psychologists, the streamlining of procedures for the validation of overseas qualifications and the devolution of responsibility for recruitment of certain psychologist posts to health boards from the Local Appointments Commission. Ongoing pay enhancements through the implementation of the recommendations of the Public Service Benchmarking Body will make a further contribution to reducing current vacancy levels by increasing the attractiveness of employment as a clinical psychologist in the health services.

Clinical Psychologists – ERHA region at end 2001-2002

		2001	2002
Eastern
East Coast AHB	Psychologist, Clinical	1.04	2.50
	Psychologist, Senior Clinical	1.00	1.00
East Coast AHB	Sum:	2.04	3.50
ERHA – SS	Psychologist, Clinical	31.91	35.00
	Psychologist, Principal Clinical	11.50	14.45
	Psychologist, Senior Clinical	49.55	43.87
	Psychologist, Student Clinical	5.00	10.00
ERHA – SS	Sum:	97.96	103.32
Northern AHB	Psychologist, Clinical	11.87	12.17
	Psychologist, Principal Clinical		0.03
	Psychologist, Senior Clinical	14.00	18.92
	Psychologist, Student Clinical	7.00	11.97
Northern AHB	Sum:	32.87	43.09
South-Western AHB	Psychologist, Clinical	2.00	1.00
	Psychologist, Principal Clinical	1.00	2.00
	Psychologist, Senior Clinical	5.50	4.39
	Psychologist, Student Clinical	0.11	0.11
South-Western AHB	Sum:	8.61	7.50
Eastern	Sum:	141.48	157.41