Paul McGrath (Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Question 332: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will report on the NEPS service available to primary and secondary schools in the Dublin 15 area; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29803/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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All schools in the Dublin 15 area have access to psychological assessments for their pupils, either through the national educational psychological service, NEPS, directly or through the scheme for commissioning psychological assessments, SCPA, or from the County Dublin VEC service. In this area at present, 22 out of 25 primary schools and five out of six post-primary schools — two of these are VEC schools — have a direct educational psychological service either from NEPS or, in the case of the two VEC schools, from the County Dublin VEC.

Schools that do not currently have NEPS psychologists assigned to them may avail of the scheme for commissioning psychological assessments, SCPA, whereby the school can have an assessment carried out by a member of a 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, are available 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.

As the Deputy may be aware, the number of NEPS psychologists has increased almost three-fold from 43 on establishment to 124 at present. On behalf of my Department, the Public Appointments Service has recently conducted a recruitment competition for the appointment of educational psychologists to NEPS, with recruitment being targeted in such a way as to increase the numbers of NEPS psychologists in priority areas. Any increase in the number of psychologists in NEPS must take account of Government policy on public sector numbers.