Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 July 2022
738. Deputy Paul Donnelly asked the Minister for Justice the estimated full-year cost of recruiting four additional whole-term equivalent senior psychologist posts and six staff grade psychologist posts for the Irish Prison Service. [37373/22]
View answerThe role of the Psychology Service in the Irish Prison Service is to deliver, develop and manage an integrated mental health and criminogenic need assessment and treatment service for people in custody, in line with service plans and objectives, and within established professional standards, guidelines and policy.
I am informed that the Prison Service currently employ various psychologist grades, including;
- Head of Psychological Services,
- Principal Psychologist Manager,
- Senior Psychologists (Grade I),
- Staff Grade Psychologists (Grade II), and
- Assistant Psychologists - an unqualified grade currently employed on a 1 year fixed term contract which is to increase to a two year contract basis only (for the new cohort commencing in August 2022) .
I am further informed that at present, as per the most recent PPC payscales of 01 February 2022*, the estimated full year cost of recruiting four additional whole-term equivalent Senior Psychologist posts and six Staff Grade Psychologist posts for the Prison Service is as outlined in the table below:
|
Grade of Psychologist |
Number |
Total |
|
Psychologist Grade 1 (Senior Grade) |
4 |
€397,985.43 |
|
Psychologist In The Prison Service (Staff Grade) |
6 |
€374,980.31 |
|
Total |
€772,965.75 |
*The rate of remuneration may be adjusted from time to time in line with Government pay policy.
Under Budget 2022 an additional €2.4m was secured for the Irish Prison Service for healthcare funding. This included just over €1 million for psychologists and specialist mental health nurses in prisons. I can advise the Deputy the on 12th July 2022 the Irish Prison Service advertised both nationally and in the UK for two senior psychologists and fifteen staff grade psychologists.
