Mary Wallace
Ceist:276 Ms M. Wallace asked the Minister for Health and Children the reason for the haphazard situation regarding training places for clinical psychologists in universities, which are only funded if there are sufficient students with health board sponsored six year contracts to take up the course, leading to the position in 2002 where only two students commenced training; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that at least 40% of health board vacancies occur due to the lack of trained psychologists; if he will take steps to ensure that these courses are run on a more solid financial basis; if his attention has further been drawn to the fact that an annual target of 50 training places for clinical psychologists needs to be in place to fill current vacancies in the health board services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10627/03]