Call to fast track process for psychologists who wish to return home to work in Ireland
A fast tracking of accreditation for returning Irish trained professionals was urgently needed to fill vacancies here but red tape and bureaucracy was a significant barrier, it was has been claimed.
Mayo TD Paul Lawless has questioned the Minister of State for Disability Hildegarde Naughton on the steps being taken around recruitment to ensure that children with disabilities receive early intervention and suitable treatment.
Deputy Lawless noted that early intervention is critical and pressed for answers on the number of vacancies across Children’s Disability Network Teams (CDNTs), as well as the percentage of vacant positions throughout the network. He also asked what are the long-term and short-term strategies to try and resolve recruitment issues.
Deputy Naughton recognised the importance of early intervention for children with disabilities and stated that under the programme for Government they are “committed to ensuring children and their families who need early intervention and therapy input, can access it in a timely way.”
She continued, “We are doing a number of things in recruitment and retention. We have bursaries in place. We are opening up HSE panels. We have HSE advertising streams. We also have incentives for therapists to work in our CDNTs. We have more than €10 million in funding,”
“This funding focuses on recruiting various positions in CDNTs, including 20 senior therapists, 20 staff grade posts, 20 health and social care assistant posts and 15 clinical training posts. Measures are also being taken to assist with sustainably addressing the backlog in the assessment of needs.”
Deputy Lawless said there was a lack of urgency in the Minister's response and noted a failure to outline any strategies in addressing the immediate crisis faced by the children and families affected due to staffing shortages.
When referencing the original question regarding how the Government intends to resolve recruitment issues, Deputy Lawless pointed out that there are many Irish professionals working abroad in Australia, Canada and the UAE.
The Aontú representative gave an example of psychologists who had to leave Ireland to complete their doctorates, getting caught up in red tape with the HSE having no ‘clear pathway’ to bring them back to Ireland to work.
“One psychologist has been trying to work in the HSE for more than a year and has been met with bureaucracy and red tape,” he said.
In response to this Deputy Naughton assured Deputy Lawless that “Absolutely everything is being done. We also have domestic and international recruitment drives happening all the time,”
“I absolutely assure him from a Government point of view there is a Cabinet committee that meets very regularly on recruitment drives and higher education.”
Deputy Lawless said: “We want to see fast track accreditation for returning Irish trained professionals and targeted financial incentives to make CDNT roles more attractive. We need to take immediate action on this to ensure children with disabilities get the support they need and are entitled to.”
This article has been funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme