Committees

The Governance Team comprises of the following Council members:

• President.
• President-elect.
• Past President.
• Honorary Secretary.
• Honorary Treasurer.
• Membership Secretary.
• International Liaison Officer.

This group forms the Governance Team of the Society, along with the Chief Executive Officer in an ex officio capacity. This group is a sub-group of Council and can be convened by its members or the Chief Executive Officer, if required, from time to time to discuss matters of strategic importance or to take decisions on behalf of Council which may require an urgent response. It is not intended to replace Council but to augment it as need arises.

Its role is to:

● Act as the overseeing Governing Team of the Society for its period of office.
● Ensure compliance with all Society guidelines & legal and financial requirements.
● Ensure all members of Council and Chairs of Groups are aware of their responsibilities.
● Take urgent action/decision-making if necessary in between Council meetings.

Meetings of the Governance Team should be minuted and any decisions taken by the Governance Team should be noted and discussed in the subsequent Council meeting.

Purpose & Objectives

● To review and approve applications for Chartered Membership and overseas applications
● To work with the Membership Secretary to advise Council on matters relevant to membership and Chartership

Membership Composition & Criteria
Chair
Deputy Chair: Membership Secretary
Co-opted members as appropriate

Reports to Council
Meets monthly
One year term
Minutes taken by member of the Committee

To oversee all PSI communications, internal and external, written, verbal and electronic. To identify, organise and promote events.

More specifically to:
● To promote the activities and brand of the PSI;
● Develop communication guidelines for all members and spokespersons;
● To comment on issues of public importance as they relate to Psychology;
● To utilise all forms of communication media to promote the vision and strategic objectives of the Society;
● To raise public awareness of Psychology and psychological well-being
● To oversee the development, promotion and organisation of Society events including the
● Annual gathering/Conference

This group is chaired by Lisa Stafford (Head of Communications) and includes Vincent McDarby, Anne Kehoe, Odhrán Mc Carthy, Dean McDonnell, Claire Crowe, Damien Lowry, Anne-Marie Casey, Sharon Lambert, and Jillian Doyle. 

Purpose & Objectives

The purpose of the Committee is to oversee the resources: people and finance of the Society. While the Chief Executive Officer will have day-to-day responsibility for the people and financial management, the Committee will more specifically:

● Regularly review the financial status of the Society.
● Receive appropriate input from the Society’s auditor.
● Ensure accurate systems for monitoring and accounting of funds for budgeting and planning purposes are in place and to report to Council on any financial irregularities and concerns.
● Oversee short and long-term investments on behalf of Council.
● Ensure compliance with relevant legislation and that legal and corporate obligations are properly fulfilled by due dates.
● Ensure that all people and organisation policies and procedures are in place.

The Resources Group members include Dr Damien Lowry (Honorary Secretary), Dr Odhrán Mc Carthy (President-elect), John Fleming (Chartered Accountant, Co-opted member), and the PSI CEO Sheena Horgan in an ex-officio capacity.

Purpose & Objective

● To promote scientific knowledge and evidence-based Psychology
● To inform public policy
● To translate psychological knowledge for the benefit of society
● To promote the exchange of ideas
● To challenge inaccurate representation of psychological research/knowledge

SPPC members include: 

The Standing Conference Committee (SCC) was formed in 2022. The current members are Lisa Stafford (PSI Head of Communications), Mark Smyth (chair), Julian Dooley, Vera Costello, and Jodie O'Hara.

Risk is an inherent part of any organisation. It is not something that can always be eliminated and knowing our risks gives us the opportunity to put arrangements in place to minimise the likelihood that they will happen and if they do happen, to minimise the impact that they could have on our organisation and our membership. The Charities Regulator is clear that charity trustees are responsible for ensuring that a risk management system is in place in order to protect the charity from any harm that may be caused, by reducing the likelihood of each risk occurring and minimising the impact of each risk where possible. Everyone in PSI has a responsibility in relation to risk.

The Strategic Planing Working Group is a key function of Council to determine the direction and scope of the Society over the long term. 

Strategic planning is the process of:

• clarifying what the Society is about.
• deciding what is and is not a priority for the use of resources.
• analysing the internal and external environment.
• considering how best to deal with upcoming changes and transitions.
• setting out a clear direction.
• setting concrete goals for the future.

Strategic planning involves looking at the Society as a complete entity and is concerned with the PSI's long-term development.

The Strategic Planning Working Group is currently working on the strategic plan for 2023 - 2026. 

Purpose & Objectives

The purpose of the Undergraduate Accreditation Committee (UAC) is to oversee the standard and quality of all undergraduate programmes run by third level institutions in the state. The UAC’s objectives are to reassure students undertaking an undergraduate course that their qualifications will be recognised by the PSI.

Accreditation Panels for individual courses will be selected from the members of the UAC. An Accreditation Panel for an undergraduate programme is to consist of 3 members of the UAC from which a Liaison will be chosen for that accreditation review and is responsible for ensuring that the accreditation review is following the Undergraduate Accreditation Process.

The Undergraduate Accreditation Committee will regularly review the Undergraduate Guidelines to make sure that they are up to date and are in line with international standards and will notify Council when it is appropriate for the guidelines to be updated.

Purpose & Objectives

There are a number of Accreditation Panels formed to accredit postgraduate courses. Their purpose is to oversee the standard and quality of all post graduate programmes for psychologists run by third level education institutions in the state.

The panel objectives are to reassure students undertaking course of study that their qualifications will be recognised by the PSI and potential employers and that the various institutions comply with standards of education expected by the PSI.

This subgroup has been working on behalf of Council to evaluate and feedback to Council on the PSI’s Division of Clinical Psychology (DCP) review and update of the PSI Clinical Psychology Accreditation Guidelines 2009. This group was chaired by Dr Odhrán McCarthy (Principal Clinical Psychologist), and included Dr Michael Drumm (Principal Clinical Psychology Manager), Dr Gillian O’Brien (Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Director), Dr Anne Kehoe (President-elect), Dr Katarina Timulakova (Senior Clinical Psychologist) and Ian O’Grady (Senior Counselling Psychologist).

This subgroup of Council was tasked with updating the original 2014 Guidelines. The group that completed this update consisted of Dr Geraldine McNamara (Clinical Psychologist), Dr Dean McDonnell (Lecturer in Psychology) and Ian O'Grady (Senior Counselling Psychologist). 

Purpose & Objectives

The purpose of the Supervision Working Group is to develop a supervision strategy within PSI.

Specifically, the group will be tasked with:

1. Develop and build on existing supervision structures within PSI.
2. Develop training offered in supervision within PSI.
3. Review and update the existing supervision guidelines.
4. Examine the existing structure for a supervision register and look at creating alternate routes to enter the register (i.e. Equivalence and grandparenting).
5. Liaise with internal stakeholders, including relevant divisions, the PAC, and the supervision SIG.
6. Liaise with external stakeholders, such as the HEI’s, National Placement Office, IACP, ICP, etc.

The group will convene for an agreed period of time to develop the supervision strategy within PSI and will report back regularly to Council.

Purpose & Objectives

This group was formed to develop plans looking at the sexual harassment of psychologists, students in psychology and early career psychologists. A main focus of the group is to promote the principles of healthy and respectful learning and working environments to our members in the field of Psychology. After hearing anecdotal stories of sexual harassment, both within the profession of psychology and outside of it, the working group was formed to tackle this problem.

Key objectives of this group are as follows:

1.     To identify the nature and extent of this problem as it may be experienced by members. This will be done by conducting research and findings will be used to support the group in achieving its objectives. 
2.     To identify any gaps in PSI policy and suggest changes to be made in the area.
3.     To identify or develop training that may be rolled out to the society membership to help members identify and prevent harassment.
4.     Raise awareness of this issue to our members, communicate the society's position on same and contribute to cultural attitudes for no tolerance of sexual harassment if such issues are found to be present.

Directive 2005/36/EC on the Recognition of Professional Qualifications

The Expert Validation Committee (EVC) supports the Department of Health Validation Unit in assessing Psychology qualifications which are assessed under the general system of Directive 2005/36/EC. It provides for an assessment on a case-by-case basis of the qualifications of an applicant against those required to practise in the host member state if the professional activities covered are comparable.