Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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126. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the length of each of the vacancies within the National Educational Psychology Service that are currently vacant for over two months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17714/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware 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 for assessment services through the Scheme for Commissioning Psychological Assessments (SCPA) a panel of private practitioners maintained for this purpose.

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. While the numbers of psychologists have steadily increased over the past ten years despite expenditure constraints, the numbers of pupils enrolled in school has also grown rapidly.

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.

NEPS provides service to schools via a network of some 23 local and regional offices serving schools in their respective catchment areas. Vacancies most commonly occur within these offices through the resignation or retirement of psychologist staff and are filled through the application of an internal staff transfer mechanism (which moves the vacancy to the location of the staff member transferring in) and ultimately through appointment of a new psychologist from a regional panel maintained by the Public Appointments Service for this purpose.

Currently there are 8 psychologist posts vacant within NEPS for more than two months (specifically one vacancy for 10, 9, 7 and 5 months, a further two vacancies for 3 months and two for 2 months). As stated above schools affected by these vacancies are afforded access to the SCPA panel for assessment services and may treat in respect of other service needs with their local NEPS office.

My Department is actively engaged with the Public Appointments Service to recruit psychologists to NEPS from the existing regional panels of qualified professionals developed for this purpose and it is envisaged that most of these posts will be filled in the immediate future. Where these panels prove unable to satisfy local recruitment requirements I can inform the Deputy that arrangements are being put in place to run a new national recruitment competition in late summer/early autumn to answer all current and medium term needs of the NEPS service.