Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 27 September 2006
1423 Mr. Stagg asked the Minister for Education and Science if the current recruitment process for educational psychologists has been completed; and the number of educational psychologists that will be assigned to schools in County Kildare. [29982/06]
View answerAll primary and post primary schools in Co Kildare have access to psychological assessments either directly through the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) or through the Scheme for Commissioning Psychological Assessments (SCPA) that is administered by NEPS and full details of which are available on my Department's website.
In addition, NEPS provides a service to every school in the event of a critical incident regardless of whether the school already has a dedicated service from a NEPS psychologist. Also in relation to all schools, NEPS processes applications for Reasonable Accommodations in Certificate Examinations and responds to queries and requests for assessments in relation to individual children from other sections of my Department and from the specialist agencies.
The Public Appointments Service concluded a new recruitment competition for the appointment of Educational Psychologists to NEPS. Regional panels have been established to allow my Department give greater priority in filling vacancies to areas with the greatest need. My Department has recently appointed 7 psychologists, 4 of whom have been appointed to the Mid West region, 1 to the South East region and 2 to the South West area of the Eastern region. The recruitment process will continue in the next few months and priority for a direct service from NEPS in each region will be given to schools designated under the DEIS policy.
A full account of service to schools from NEPS will be available in November.
