Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 255: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of psychologists employed by the National Educational Psychological Service; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4308/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The complement of the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, has increased from 43 psychologists — 30 in permanent full-time posts and 13 on secondment — on the date of establishment to 128 in January 2005, plus two psychologists on career break and one on assignment to another section of the Department.

Recruitment of psychologists has, until recently, been undertaken by the Civil Service and Local Government Commissioners. The last Civil Service Commission panel of 69 psychologists has now been exhausted and arrangements for the recently established public appointments service to set up a new panel are at a preliminary stage. Further recruitment will depend on the availability of resources and must also take account of Government policy on public sector numbers.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 256: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of primary schools in each county in the State; the number of these schools in each county which are covered by the National Educational Psychological Service; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4309/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I attach the information requested by the Deputy as an Excel spread sheet. The schools listed as NEPS schools in the spreadsheet have NEPS psychologists directly assigned to them and have access to the full NEPS service.

All schools that do not currently have NEPS psychologists assigned to them may avail of the scheme for commissioning psychological assessments, whereby the school can have an assessment carried out by a member of the panel of private psychologists approved by NEPS and NEPS will pay the psychologist the fees for this assessment directly. Details of this process, and the conditions that apply to the scheme, appear upon the Department's website.

NEPS provides assistance to all schools that suffer from critical incidents, regardless of whether they have a NEPS psychologist assigned to them. The Deputy should note the significant expansion in the number of NEPS psychologists in recent years. There are now 128 psychologists in NEPS, compared to just 43 in 1999.

With regard to in-school support for children with learning difficulties, it should be noted that the number of resource teachers has increased dramatically in recent years, from just 104 in 1997 to 2,600 in 2004. This is in addition to the expansion in the number of special needs assistants for children with disabilities.