Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 470: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of secondary 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. [4686/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Following is the information requested by the Deputy in the form of a spreadsheet.

The schools listed as NEPS schools have NEPS psychologists assigned to them and have access to the full NEPS service. All schools that do not yet have access to the NEPS service may avail of the scheme for commissioning psychological assessments. Details of this have been notified to all schools and 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.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 471: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of children in each county waiting for an assessment from the national educational psychological service; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4687/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Provision of individual psychological assessments is part of the work of the educational psychologists in the national educational psychological service. The psychologists do not keep waiting lists of children requiring assessment in the sense of lists of names that are dealt with in chronological order. School authorities refer children for assessment and discuss the relative urgency of each case during the psychologist's visits. This allows the psychologists to give early attention to urgent cases and such children will be seen or referred on in a matter of weeks, if not days.

An account of waiting lists by county, as requested by the Deputy, is not available. Every effort will be made to ensure that urgent assessment needs will be met before the end of the current school year. To respond to non-urgent needs and to add value to the psychological service, NEPS is pursuing a policy of enhancing the skills of teachers in the areas of group and individual testing, programme development and behavioural management. This means that many children's needs can be speedily met without the necessity for individual psychological assessment, although the psychologists are available as consultants to teachers and parents, thus helping the children in an indirect way. This helps to reduce waiting times for individual assessment.

NEPS is being developed on a phased basis over a number of years and has not yet reached its full staffing complement. Pending expansion of its service to all schools in the country, my Department has allocated funding to NEPS to allow for the commissioning of psychological assessments from private practitioners. NEPS has issued details of how to avail of the scheme for commissioning psychological assessments (SCPA) to all schools and these also appear on my Department's website. NEPS is currently conducting a review of the operation of SCPA and is examining ways in which it may be used more flexibly to respond to any unmet needs for assessment.

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 472: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the status of an application for an autistic unit for a primary school (details supplied) in County Clare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4688/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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My Department received an application to establish an autistic class from the school in question on 20 December 2004.

My officials are liaising with the national educational psychological service regarding the application. A decision will be conveyed to the school as soon as this process has been completed.