Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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429. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the total number of educational psychologists working in schools; and the total annual cost of same. [28037/22]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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430. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated first and full-year costs of hiring one additional educational psychologist. [28038/22]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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431. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost in 2023 of recruiting 20 additional full-time psychologists for the National Educational Psychological Service. [28075/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 429, 430 and 431 together.

I can inform the Deputy that the number of NEPS psychologists employed currently stands at 225 whole-time equivalents across the NEPS regions and the annual pay cost of the 225 psychologists is the region of €20m. The average direct pay and non-pay cost per annum of employing one main grade Educational Psychologist in the NEPS service is €76,000 per annum. The estimated annual additional cost, therefore, of employing 20 main grade psychologists would be approximately €1.5m.