Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 303: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of requests on hand for provision of psychological, speech and language therapy requirements, remedial, resource or other special needs teaching; the extent to which she expects to respond positively to these requests at an early date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6012/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, does not normally keep waiting lists of children requiring assessment in the sense of lists of names that are dealt with in chronological order. NEPS encourages a staged assessment process, whereby each school takes responsibility for initial assessment, educational planning and remedial intervention, in consultation with its assigned NEPS psychologist. Only if there is a failure to make reasonable progress in spite of the school's best efforts, will a child be referred for individual psychological assessment. This system allows the psychologists to give early attention to urgent cases and also to help many more children indirectly than could be seen individually.

Children who manifest very special needs in school, and who have not been previously assessed by a psychologist and are brought to the attention of a NEPS psychologist by the principal teacher, will normally be assessed by the psychologist within that school term.

Schools without NEPS psychologists assigned to them have access to educational psychological assessments through the scheme for commissioning psychological assessments, SCPA. Under this scheme, schools can commission assessments from a member of the panel of private practitioners approved by NEPS and NEPS will pay the fees directly to the psychologists concerned. Details of this scheme, including the conditions that apply to it, are available on the Department of Education and Science website. The prioritisation of urgent cases for assessment is a matter for the school principal in the first instance.

The Deputy will be aware that a new scheme for allocating resource teachers to schools to cater for the needs of children with high-incidence special needs such as mild general learning disability and learning support needs was introduced in schools in September 2005. Resource teachers will now be in place in the school from the start of the school year, so that children who need their assistance can get it straight away. The new system for allocating resource teachers in primary schools comprises a general allocation for pupils with learning difficulties and those with high incidence disabilities.

The Deputy may also be aware that the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, became operational from 1 January 2005. The council now has responsibility for the allocation of resource teaching provision, together with special needs assistant support, where appropriate, for pupils with special educational needs arising from the more complex low incidence disabilities, such as autism.

The provision of therapy services for people with disabilities, including speech and language therapy, is a matter for the Health Services Executive and funding is provided to the HSE for such purposes.