No agreement was made or commitment given by my Department to higher education institutions or any other party for the payment of full fees for students undertaking doctoral studies in clinical psychology. The terms of the model agreed jointly by my Department with the health boards' directors of human resources group to assist students in undertaking postgraduate training in clinical psychology provides for each student a contribution towards fees of €6,000 on an annual basis for the three years of the course in addition to a bursary payment of €18,000 per annum. I understand that this level of financial support compares favourably with that available to postgraduate students generally. The current model was adopted to support the implementation of a key recommendation of the joint review group on psychological services in the health services to substantially increase the number of postgraduate training places in clinical psychology to meet human resource requirements for the health service while securing the best return on the significant resources currently invested in this training area.
