Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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Question 265: To ask the Minister for Education and Science when a psychologist will be appointed to a school (details supplied) in County Wicklow; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34736/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, all primary and post primary schools have access to psychological assessments either directly through the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) or through the Scheme for Commissioning Psychological Assessments (SCPA), full details of which are available on my Department's website. Schools that do not currently have NEPS psychologists assigned to them may avail of the SCPA, 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 are available on my Department's Website. The prioritisation of urgent cases for assessment is a matter for the school principal in the first instance. The school referred to by the Deputy may now avail of SCPA in view of the retirement of the assigned psychologist.