Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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621.To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the funding provided for NEPS services in Limerick in each of the years 2019 to date, in tabular form. [31250/24]

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 schools. This involves direct support in the event of a critical incident, access to national and regional support and development work to build school capacity to support students, access to a NEPS psychologist for responses to queries arising, and access to individual pupil casework where there is need via a NEPS psychologist or through the Scheme for the Commissioning of Psychological Assessments (SCPA).

The budget allocation for NEPS in 2024 is 32.3m and this allocation covers both pay and non-pay costs. A further €5m has also been allocated for the Counselling in Primary Schools Pilot. This brings the overall budget for NEPS in 2024 to a level of €37.3m. This has risen from a figure of €20.8m in 2019.

NEPS psychologists work within a regional structure serving the needs of schools in their immediate vicinity. NEPS is made up of eight regions – Dublin; Dublin Mid-Leinster; Mid-Munster; North-Eastern; North-West/North Midlands; South-East/South Midlands; South-Western; and Western Regions. The Limerick area is in the South-Western Region, along with Kerry, Clare, and south Tipperary. The number of psychologists employed in the NEPS South-Western region is 24. NEPS is continuing to recruit educational psychologists.