Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 126: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she has satisfied herself with the roll out of the NEPS particularly outside the greater Dublin area; the areas of difficulty and the steps her Department is taking to fill the gaps in the system in these areas. [13124/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The complement of psychologists in NEPS has increased from 43 psychologists, 30 in permanent full-time posts and 13 on secondment, on the date of establishment in September 1999 to 128 in January 2005, plus two psychologists on career break. Recruitment of psychologists to NEPS has, until recently, been undertaken by the Civil Service and Local Government Commissioners. The last Civil Service Commission panel of 69 psychologists has been exhausted and the recently established Public Appointments Service is now making arrangements to set up a new panel.

It has proved difficult to recruit psychologists to certain regions, most notably the mid-western region. Accordingly, to achieve a better regional spread of NEPS psychologists, under the next recruitment competition for NEPS psychologists, regional panels rather than one national panel will be established. This will allow my Department to give greater priority in filling vacancies to areas with the greatest need.

It should be noted that all schools that do not 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 on my Department's website. NEPS also provides assistance to all schools that suffer from critical incidents, regardless of whether they have a NEPS psychologist assigned to them.