Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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873.To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide a report on the needs based in school multidisciplinary teams that operate in ten primary schools in the north-east inner city; to provide a full-year cost of providing this across all primary schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33703/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department is committed to supporting a quality and inclusive school system that provides an equal opportunity at success for all children, including those at risk of educational disadvantage.

The North East Inner City Multi-Disciplinary Team (NEIC MDT) comprises of Educational Psychologists from my Department’s National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) and Health Service Executive (HSE) Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists and a Psychologist.

This project is an interagency collaboration between my Department and the HSE which provides a multidisciplinary team to ten NEIC DEIS Band 1 primary schools. The NEIC MDT provide school staff, children and families access to on-site Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Psychology; it also offers psychology support to families through the HSE Psychologist on the team. The MDT provide a wraparound service including preventative work, early intervention, assessment and therapeutic intervention, to support all children, school staff and families.

The MDT team provides a needs-based school service that responds to the presenting issues for each child, their family and school.

My Department provides funding for 2.8 Whole Time Equivalent NEPS psychologists at a cost of some €240,000 per annum. The other posts are funded by the HSE