Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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282. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number and location of child psychologists he employs under the National Educational Psychological Service. [21118/16]

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 a current level of 176 individuals, equating with 166 whole time equivalent psychologists when work-sharing arrangements are factored in. 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.

I include for the Deputy's information a table setting out the number of NEPS Educational Psychologists currently employed in NEPS by office location.

Number of Individual Educational Psychologists employed currently by NEPS by location