Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)

I am grateful to Senator Clonan for raising this issue. The importance of the National Educational Psychological Service, which he raised, is not lost on this Government. It provides a critical service to almost 1 million children and young people and almost 100,000 staff who work in our primary, post-primary and special schools daily.

The Government has set its commitment to double the number of educational psychologists in schools. There are 240 educational psychologists in NEPS but, as with any service, there are ongoing vacancies due to statutory leave, retirements and promotion so to really deliver for children we need so many more in our system as a matter of urgency. To give some idea of the scale of the need, there is one NEPS psychologist for every 4,600 children in schools in Ireland. In other countries there is an educational psychologist for approximately every 1,900 children, so there is a very significant gap which we need to address. Bridging that gap will require approximately 550 educational psychologists, which means an additional 330 psychologists working in the system.

The Department of Education and Youth has progressed a number of initiatives over the last few years in order to increase the supply of educational psychologists including running annual recruitment campaigns and providing bursaries to students in the two existing programmes.The House may also be aware that there are only two courses in Ireland providing professional training programmes for educational psychologists and, as Senator Clonan laid out, graduates are shared across the education and health sectors. NEPS is committed to employing the graduates of the courses supported by the education bursaries but unfortunately these existing courses provide fewer than 15 graduates annually to NEPS. If our ambition is to grow the statutory National Educational Psychological Service in the way I have described, we need a complete change in mindset and a willingness to work in new ways to make this happen.

The Minister was delighted, last March, to welcome the announcement by Maynooth University of its intention to commence a new professional training programme for educational psychology, which will start, as the Senator set out, in September. This course is much needed. After a competitive interview process, 20 candidates of the highest calibre have now signed up to start their professional training on this programme. The Department is extending its bursary scheme to support these students and the programme will support a substantial increase in the number of qualified educational psychologists available to NEPS. This new programme is a significant step forward in the Government's commitment to significantly increase the number of college places for educational psychologists as outlined. I can absolutely reassure the Senator that this programme will adhere to the very highest standards of education and training that are in line with international accreditation standards for educational psychologists.

The NEPS service is committed to supporting this programme, as it does the other professional training programmes, through the provision of practice placements, supervisory support and input to the training itself. Over the three-year programme, trainees will develop expertise in the core skills of assessment, intervention, consultation, training and research within a variety of educational and service settings. They will gain hands-on experience working with children, young people, families and professionals, ensuring they are well prepared to support the learning, development and emotional well-being of children and young people. They will also gain expertise working with multidisciplinary teams with continually evolving opportunities for such work within the education sector, including as part of the multidisciplinary team in the north-east inner city, working with other multidisciplinary teams in education, including the education therapy support service and the new national therapy service which will be introduced from this year into special schools.

I fully understand the points made and the career-wide bona fides of the Senator in this regard. However, a deliberate decision has been taken to focus on NEPS. It is not to exclude other services. Other areas will be provided for. I am more than happy to make the Senator's points to the Minister directly and to the president of the university. However, there is method in the process here.