Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

As the Deputy will be aware, this Government has given a very high priority to providing better supports for children with special needs. This year, we will provide over €820 million for special education — an increase of 30%, or €180 million, on last year's allocation. Among other improvements, this increased investment covers the cost of 31 extra NEPS psychologists, including our commitments under Towards 2016.

The number of psychologists in the Department has increased from 43 since the establishment of NEPS in 1999 to a current figure of 127, including four psychologists assigned to the National Behavioural Support Service. There are also a further 16 whole-time equivalent educational psychologists providing a service through the Dublin City and County VECs. Taken together, there are currently 143 educational psychologists working in services paid for by my Department. The expansion of the number of NEPS psychologists by a further 31 in 2007 will represent a significant increase in the numbers in NEPS and bring the total number of psychologists in the system to 174.

I am pleased to inform the Deputy that in line with the Government's Towards 2016 commitments, the number of NEPS psychologists will be increased even further in each of 2008 and 2009, to a total of 193. At this point, including the 16 psychologists in the Dublin VEC areas, it is expected that the number of educational psychologists in the system as a whole will be 209. Therefore, the number of schools covered directly by NEPS psychologists will increase substantially. The number of schools served directly by NEPS is only half the picture as schools which are not covered by the service can commission private assessments paid for by NEPS.

More than 4,000 such private assessments were funded in the 2005-06 academic year. In addition, NEPS psychologists themselves carried out 6,700 assessments. So, in total, nearly 11,000 children had assessments paid for by my Department last year. Given that 11,000 assessments were provided, I was concerned to hear that the Society of St. Vincent De Paul had also paid for some. My Department has contacted the society to ascertain why this was the case. Since the Government provided for a guaranteed allocation of resource teaching hours to all primary schools in 2005, the majority of primary school children do not now need psychological assessments to get extra support.

In common with many other psychological services, NEPS encourages a staged assessment process whereby each school takes responsibility for initial assessment, educational planning and remedial intervention, in consultation with their assigned NEPS psychologist. Only if there is a failure to make reasonable progress, in spite of the school's best efforts, will a child be referred for individual psychological assessment. It is important that such a system be used to ensure that children are not referred unnecessarily for psychological intervention.

It was not clear from the coverage last month whether the staged model had been followed in the cases referred to by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. As I said earlier, we have contacted the society to arrange a meeting to discuss the background to, and context for, any funding it has provided for psychological assessments. As regards clinical diagnosis, discussions are currently under way between the Department of Education and Science and the Department of Health and Children with regard to the implementation of both the Disability Act and the EPSEN Act and these discussions will incorporate discussion on assessment issues. My Department will consider its assessment requirements in this context and as part of the normal ongoing review of policies and procedures.

With the huge increases in investment in special education services in recent years, I am confident that all children with special needs can access resources in an appropriate and speedy manner.

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