Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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155. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of employing an additional 100 new NEPS psychologists. [23191/16]

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), full details of which are on the Department's website. Under this scheme schools 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.

My Department, over the course of recent economic difficulties, has not only maintained psychologists staffing levels within NEPS, but has increased them by some 10% since late 2008, to 165 whole time equivalent psychologists currently employed.

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 can inform the Deputy that the NEPS budget for 2016 stand at €18.25m which provides for the pay and non-pay costs of the national structure of regional and local offices. To increase this number by a further 100 psychologists would demand a direct investment of some €7.3m. per annum.