Vol. 492 No. 1
270 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will provide funding to extend the psychological scheme recently announced to include a school (details supplied) in Athy, County Kildare, where this service is vitally needed. [13540/98]
I am aware of the need for a psychological service in the primary sector. As an interim measure, 15 psychologists who are also qualified primary teachers have been recruited to work with my Department's Psychological Service for a period of three years. This initiative has increased the number of primary schools which now have access to the help of an educational psychologist. However, after the deployment of these additional psychologists, there is still a considerable number of primary schools without a schools' psychological service, including the school mentioned.
In order to rectify this situation, I announced shortly after taking up office my intention to establish a National Educational Psychological Service. Plans for this service, which is to be available to all primary and secondary schools as well as to pre-school children, were included in the Programme for Government.
