Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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There are not enough NEPS psychologists, and that is an obvious statement. Some schools do not have access and they use the scheme for the commissioning of psychological assessments, SCPA. They seem to think they are limited to perhaps one assessment a year, which is not sufficient if there are a number of children in a school who require assessment, whether it is moving on to secondary school or for other issues.

It is also an area that is under-resourced. We need more National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, psychologists.

The teachers and teachers' unions are concerned about the educational assessment part of the assessment of need, AON, process, which has been highlighted recently. Suddenly, they are being told they must provide the information for the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, to assess it. There is a concern there as well. If there will be an increased workload on teachers and NEPS psychologists, that needs to be looked at as well and properly resourced. Who should be doing that?