Psychologist Caroline Goldsmith has apologised for claiming to have a PhD from an online university which issues fake qualifications.
In a statement, she said: "This was a personal error of significant proportion, which I deeply regret."
RTÉ Investigates revealed last Monday that she presented the PhD from the State University of Sheffield in America to private clients who she assessed for autism.
It also revealed Ms Goldsmith presented a CV with the bogus PhD in two court cases.
In one of these cases, the CV was included in a report to a family court in which she was asked to assess the suitability of a mother to be given access to her child.
Ms Goldsmith declined to comment to RTÉ before the revelations were broadcast on Monday night's programme, Ireland’s Unregulated Psychologists, saying she "didn’t trust [the programme] to be impartial".
The programme showed how it was able to acquire the same PhD from the State University of Sheffield in America in a matter of minutes.
In her statement today, Ms Goldsmith said: "I made submissions to the State University of Sheffield. This was a personal error of significant proportion, which I deeply regret.
"I voluntarily ceased to use the PhD title of Dr Even though this was not illegal or against any regulations, I do feel, I let myself down.
"I realise this may have disappointed others and I recognise their feelings in this regard."
Ms Goldsmith listed a number of qualifications which she said she has legitimately gained during her time working as a psychologist.
She added that her fee for work as a psychologist "has always been one of the lowest in the country."
Read more:
How fake qualifications got psychologist a HSE job
Psychologist with fake qualifications worked for HSE
How I set myself up as a fake psychologist
The revelations about Ms Goldsmith emerged as part of a wider look by the programme at the lack of regulation and oversight of the psychology sector in Ireland.
The programme reported that almost 12,000 children are waiting over a year to see a psychologist who can give them a diagnosis.
These delays in the public system are forcing families to go private where there is no regulation or effective oversight.
It was demonstrated that anyone can call themselves a psychologist in Ireland.
Families contacted by the programme had engaged the services of Caroline Goldsmith, who is a prominent figure in the world of private autism assessments in Ireland.
However, some families who spoke to the programme felt misled about qualifications she claimed to have obtained at that time.
The investigation uncovered evidence that Caroline Goldsmith first presented a CV with fake qualifications to a recruitment firm in 2012.
This company placed her in a job with the HSE, carrying out autism assessments on children. A total of 19 children later had to be reassessed.
The programme established that all of her main qualifications on her CV from that period were fake.
These qualifications were a degree from the Open University in 1998, a Masters from Nottingham University in 2000 and a PhD from the Union Institute and University in 2004.
These are genuine colleges but the awards were fake.
In her statement today, Ms Goldsmith said: "Some of my earlier credentials were called into question.
"In 2014, I was informed to my horror that three of them were not actually accredited. My knee jerk response was to seek accreditation of my thesis. I made submissions to the State University of Sheffield."
The programme showed that Ms Goldsmith was questioned about her qualifications in 2012 by the HSE and that her contract with a recruitment firm which supplied her to the HSE was terminated later that year.
Ms Goldsmith continued to operate in private practice where she carried out assessments on children for autism.
The qualifications presented in her CV to the HSE were again presented to private clients.
She was advertised online around this period as a "world-renowned authority in the field of autism".
Ms Goldsmith claimed today that she studied for the courses over a period of nine years and that she was misled by an unnamed third-party entity.
"I thought they were legitimate online,'open university style' services just like the UK. I had no reason to believe otherwise," she said.
However, RTÉ Investigates has established that the CV included not only fake awards, they also included detailed transcripts outlining her course codes, grades and subjects, all of which were fake.
RTÉ Investigates contacted the colleges listed on the CV at that time.
Nottingham University said of her masters, allegedly awarded in 2000: "The name and date of birth of the student does not match our records for anyone graduating in that subject during that year."
The Open University said the award documents for her 1998 undergraduate degree were "not consistent in format and appearance with degree certificates issued at this period".
And the Union Institute and University in America told us her PhD, allegedly awarded in, was fake.
Ms Goldsmith has since acquired two legitimate masters qualifications in psychology. On her website, she says she has treated thousands of clients over the past two decades.
There are currently no State regulations covering the psychology sector, so at present, anyone in Ireland can call themselves a psychologist.
