Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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Question 409: To ask the Minister for Education and Science her views on the number of posts currently vacant or not filled by psychologists on the National Educational Psychological Service panel to undertake psychological assessments of students; the fee or payment arrangements that have been set in place by her Department for the delivery of this service; the mechanism or procedure through which her Department decided upon this sum; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10428/08]

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). 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. Under the scheme schools are allowed annual access to the scheme at a level commensurate with 2% of school enrolment. The SCPA was established in 2001 and the panel set up which currently has 141 psychologists listed. I assume that this is the panel to which the Deputy refers in his question.

The panel is maintained by NEPS on the basis of applications submitted by any psychologist in private practice who wishes to participate in the scheme who (1) is a members of their professional association and (2) has relevant experience in the individual assessment of children. Panellists also undergo normal vetting procedures by An Garda Síochána. There is no specific quota of participants for the panel and therefore there are no vacancies thereon. The fee payable in respect of assessments undertaken in this regard is €330 and was set at this level to reflect an emolument which would be sufficient to the needs of the scheme.

I can inform the Deputy for his information that during the 2006/07 academic year some 4,426 assessments, a 10% increase on the previous year, were carried out under the scheme and paid for by my Department at a cost of approximately €1.46m. In 2007/08 to the end of January claims for some 1,935 assessments have been processed under the scheme, this figure is well in line with the number processed in this period of the preceding year. The matter of the level of the fee per assessment is being kept under on-going review to ensure that it remains sufficient to service the needs of schools.