Couple’s careers, wedding on hold after course funds doubt

A WEXFORD couple have put their wedding and career plans on hold because of a blunder over funding for a psychology course at Trinity College Dublin.

The three-year Doctoral Programme in Clinical Psychology was due to begin last month, funded by the Northern Area Health Board of the Eastern Regional Health Authority.

The board contracted 12 students to work with it for three years in completing the doctorate, beginning the course on a €32,000 salary.

But the successful applicants were shocked to hear the programme was being postponed just weeks before the start date because the health board had not secured necessary funding.

Among them was 23-year-old Trudy Meehan, from Wexford, who gave up her position as a researcher to make the move. She and fiancé Michael Guilfoyle began renting a house in Blackrock, Dublin, and were on holiday in September when she received the news by e-mail.

“I was hugely disappointed, after being selected from more than 100 applicants last January,” Ms Meehan said. She is completing a Masters to complement her UCC psychology degree.

Mr Guilfoyle was also upset because he was employed by TCD as a lecturer.

“He was working as a clinical psychologist in Wexford, where we were renting a home, but he always wanted to lecture,” Ms Meehan said.

“We had hoped to get married next August, but with just one salary, we couldn’t afford it, so now we’re just hoping the money can be found somewhere,” she said.

The NAHB said last night it was in discussions with the Department of Health, TCD and other ERHA health boards to secure funding for the course.

“Our board appreciates the position of these students and hopes funding can be agreed to allow them begin the programme as soon as possible,” a spokesperson said.

Many of the other students, from Donegal, Belfast and many other parts of the country, had also given up jobs and had begun renting in Dublin when they received the bad news in September.

Another group of 12 students began a similar doctorate course at TCD in January, at a cost of more than €2 million to the NAHB over the course of three years.

The ERHA has just half the number of clinical psychologists it needs to work with child abuse victims, people with learning disabilities or eating disorders and other patients.