Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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74. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of psychologists that would be required under the National Educational Psychological Service to provide a psychologist to pupil ratio of 1:5000; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15245/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I can inform the Deputy that my Department's National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) provides educational psychology service to all primary and post primary schools through an assigned NEPS psychologist and in some cases through the Scheme for Commissioning Psychological Assessments (SCPA). My Department, over the course of recent economic difficulties, has not only maintained psychologist staffing levels within NEPS, but has increased them by some 10% since late 2008, to 162 whole time equivalent psychologists currently employed. My Department is actively engaged with the Public Appointments Service to recruit nine further psychologists to NEPS from an existing panel of qualified professionals developed for this purpose and it is envisaged that most of these posts will be filled in the immediate future.

The Programme for a Partnership Government commits that we will invest additional resources in the National Educational Psychological Service to ensure earlier intervention and access for young children and teenagers and to offer immediate support to schools in cases of critical incidents. The Programme commits to bring the total number of NEPS psychologists to 238 from the current sanctioned limit of 173.

Based on current years' enrolment I can inform the Deputy that to provide for a 1:5,000 ratio of NEPS psychologists to pupil would require some 185 whole-time-equivalent psychologist staff taking into account the existing management structures.