Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To be clear, the Deputy is correct that there is not an assigned psychologist available at present. The point that I was trying to make is that the school does continue to have access to support and development work, which is delivered by the local team for critical incident response, as outlined by the Deputy. There is advisory support as well from an allocated psychologist for pupil casework. There is also an advisory psychologist who can respond to any queries that the school may have, and support from SCPA, which is the private service. I do not know whether there is a cost implication for this service, so I do not want to comment on it, but it is worth the school inquiring. We have 225 psychologists throughout the country across eight different NEPS regions. In 2014, there were only 173. There was an increase of 54 in this budget.

Deputy Funchion asked about the recruitment of a psychologist. The competition is ongoing at present. Like any national service, there are gaps but it is important to say that there is access to a psychologist for the school. Deputy Funchion has brought the matter to my attention again today, which will bring it to the attention of the Department. It is also worth the school contacting NEPS directly and inquiring about the private service if the NEPS regional team is not itself in a position to assist. There are a lot of supports in place for well-being and counselling and other such measures that will assist the school.

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