Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 9 Feb 1999

Vol. 500 No. 1

Written Answers - Psychological Services.

Richard Bruton

Ceist:

412 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Education and Science the number of children at primary and second levels who received a psychological assessment from the psychological service in each of the past three years; the number of psychologists at each level in each of the past three years; and the targeted level of staff and activity in each of the years 1999 and 2000. [3468/99]

Minister for Education and Science (Mr. Martin)

Casework statistics provided by my Department's psychological service for the past three school years are set out in tabular form below for the Deputy's information. Until the school year 1997-98, only the number of referrals received was recorded, without further analysis. Since that time, data on the numbers of assessments, full and partial, have also been collected.

School year	1995-96
Number of primary psychologists	15
Total number of referrals (primary)	1,063
Number of post-primary psychologists	19
Total number of referrals (post-primary)	1,480

School year	1996-97
Number of primary psychologists	13.5
Total number of referrals (primary)	957
Number of post-primary psychologists	18.5
Total number of referrals (post-primary)	1,441

School year	1997-98
Number of primary psychologists	13
Full psychological assessments (primary)	703
Assessments of attainments (primary)	103
Number of post-primary psychologists	18
Full psychological assessments (post-primary)	859
Assessments of attainments (post-primary)	245

The numbers of psychologists do not include psychologists in promotional posts who are not directly engaged in work in schools, two in 1995-96 and 1996-97 and three in 1997-98. Eight of the post-primary psychologists were promoted to the grade of senior during the school year 1997-98. Because of their new supervisory responsibilities, they consequently devoted somewhat less of their time to casework than had previously been the case.

The service to primary schools is much enhanced in the current school year with the appointment in 1998 of 15 psychologists specifically for that sector in a development project involving my Department's psychological service and Mary Immaculate College of Education, Limerick.

Subject to the approval of Government, implementation of the report of the planning group for the national educational psychological service will begin shortly. It is envisaged that 25 additional psychologists will be recruited during each of the years 1999 and 2000. These psychologists should begin to take up their appointments during the school year 1999-2000. My Department is currently carrying out a detailed analysis of the needs and resources available in all parts of the country, in order to set priorities for the expansion of the National Educational Psychological Service.