Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 260: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the reason adequate psychological assessment facilities are not being provided as required throughout the country; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11026/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy will be aware that 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). 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. The prioritisation of urgent cases for assessment is a matter for the school principal in the first instance.

In addition NEPS provides assistance to all schools and school communities that experience critical incidents, regardless of whether or not they have a NEPS psychologist assigned to them. Also, in relation to all schools, NEPS processes applications for Reasonable Accommodation in Certificate Examinations and responds to queries in relation to individual children from other sections of my Department and from the specialist agencies.

As the Deputy will be aware, this Government has given a very high priority to providing better supports for children with special needs. This year, we are providing over €820 million for special education — an increase of 30% or €180 million on last year's allocation. Amongst other improvements, this increased investment covers the cost of 31 extra NEPS psychologists, including our commitments under 'Towards 2016'.

I can inform the Deputy that the number of psychologists in the Department has increased from 43 since the establishment of NEPS in 1999 to a current figure of 127, including 4 psychologists assigned to the National Behavioural Support Service. There are also a further 16 Whole-time-equivalent educational psychologists providing a service through the Dublin City and County VECs. Taken together, there are currently 143 educational psychologists working in services paid for by my Department. The expansion of the number of NEPS psychologists by a further 31 in 2007 will represent a significant increase in the numbers in NEPS and bring the total number of psychologists in the system to 174.

I am pleased to inform the Deputy that in line with the Government's 'Towards 2016' commitments, the number of NEPS psychologists will be increased even further in each of 2008 and 2009, to a total of 193. At this point, including the 16 psychologists in the Dublin VEC areas, it is expected that the number of educational psychologists in the system as a whole will be 209. Hence the number of schools covered directly by NEPS psychologists will increase substantially. The number of schools served directly by NEPS is only half the picture, as schools that are not covered by the service can commission private assessments paid for by NEPS.

More than 4,000 such private assessments were funded in the 2005/06 academic year. In addition, NEPS psychologists themselves carried out 6,700 assessments. So, in total, nearly 11,000 children had assessments paid for by my Department last year. It should be noted that since the Government provided for a guaranteed allocation of resource teaching hours to all primary schools in 2005, the majority of primary school children do not now need psychological assessments in order to get extra support.

It should also be noted that in common with many other psychological services, NEPS encourages a staged assessment process, whereby each school takes responsibility for initial assessment, educational planning and remedial intervention, in consultation with their 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. It is important that such a system is used in order to ensure that children are not referred unnecessarily for psychological intervention.

With the huge increases in investment in special education services in recent years, I am confident that all children with special needs can access resources in an appropriate and speedy manner.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 261: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the extent to which she has been notified regarding the psychological assessment requirements in respect of the various schools throughout County Kildare; her intentions to meet such requirements in full in early date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11027/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy will be aware that 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. The prioritisation of urgent cases for assessment is a matter for the school principal in the first instance.

In addition NEPS provides assistance to all schools and school communities that experience critical incidents, regardless of whether or not they have a NEPS psychologist assigned to them. Also, in relation to all schools, NEPS processes applications for Reasonable Accommodation in Certificate Examinations and responds to queries in relation to individual children from other sections of my Department and from the specialist agencies.

The current position in relation to Co. Kildare schools is that some 45% of primary schools (representing some 53% of pupils) and 89% of post-primary schools (representing 91% of students) have a NEPS psychologist assigned to them.

Since the establishment of the NEPS in 1999, the number of NEPS psychologists has increased from 43 to 127 at present.

I have recently been pleased to announce an increase of 31 posts in 2007 in NEPS psychologist staffing. My Department is currently in discussions with the Public Appointments Service in an effort to recruiting these individuals as soon as possible in this regard. It is envisaged that these appointments will allow for further expansion of coverage by NEPS psychologists across all regions. Additionally under the Towards 2016 Agreement commitments I have further announced that NEPS psychologist numbers shall expand by a further 35 posts in the following two years.