Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Department has consistently increased the number of special needs assistants and resource teaching hours in recent years. The increases this year were especially significant, and we also increased the number of NEPS psychologists. This year, for the first time, every school has access to a NEPS psychologist. Every school is allocated a specific number of psychological assessments and some will pay privately to have assessments done, which is where the current inequity arises. Under the new system, we want to ensure that a NEPS assessment will not be necessary for a child to secure the supports he or she needs. It is probably not a good use of resources to have NEPS psychologists carry out assessments solely for the purpose of securing resources for children. Under the new model, I expect they will be freed up to carry out the tasks required to meet the psychological needs of children in schools. It was for this reason that the National Council for Special Education concluded that a new model of resource allocation was required.

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