Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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260. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide a breakdown of allocation specifically to NEPS as contained in Budget 2024, which appears to state a reduction of funding of over €20 million. [45209/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department’s National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) provides educational psychological support to all primary and post-primary and special schools.

The NEPS service provides access for all schools to:

• Psychological support in the event of a Critical Incident
• A Casework Service for individual children where there is a need for intensive consultation and assessment via a NEPS psychologist or through the Scheme for the Commissioning of Psychological Assessments (SCPA).
• A school staff Support and Development Service, to build school capability to provide a comprehensive continuum of support in schools and
• Ongoing access to advice and support for schools.

Therefore, in 2023 the expenditure for NEPS pay and non-pay costs were allocated and reported within the Administration subhead ‘(viii) National Education Psychological Services’. In 2024, the pay element of the NEPS is now recorded under the administrative subhead ‘(i) Salaries, Wages and allowances’. In 2024, this reallocation of NEPS pay expenditure to another subhead line has resulted in a decrease to the (viii) subhead line allocation and a corresponding increase to the (i) subhead line. This has not resulted in any reduction to NEPS overall funding allocation from 2023 to 2024. The final budget figure will be available after the Revised Estimate process. In addition to the NEPS budget I was also pleased to announce that my Department has secured additional funding in Budget 2024 to continue the counselling in primary school pilot for an additional year, until June 2025.