Keira Keogh (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I am wondering about the idea of caseload when we look at these in-school therapies. While I am a TD now and probably should not say this, I avoided working in public service because I wanted to manage my caseload. I kept it at approximately 50 clients. That meant some could come maybe once a month, others once a fortnight and some I saw a couple of times a week, depending on the need. Ms O’Rourke mentioned, as a NEPS psychologist, that she might have 30 schools. To break that down, there are 36 or 37 weeks in the school year and it takes a day and a half to do an assessment. If we say there are four assessments per school, that means there are 120 assessments per year. That is probably the best-case scenario. What does an ideal caseload look like for a speech and language therapist, a psychologist or even a social worker within a school? How many children or families can they support? While I know that is a one-size-fits-all question and it depends on need, the witnesses have some sense of it.