Vol. 503 No. 3
565 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Education and Science if Scoil Micial Naoifa girls national school, Stanhope Road, Athy, County Kildare will benefit from the new psychological services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9813/99]
The national educational psychological service agency will shortly be formally established. It will be phased in over five years, and it is envisaged that every school in the country, including the school mentioned by the Deputy, will have access to the schools psychological service at the end of that time.
My Department will shortly be recruiting 25 additional psychologists, who should take up their appointments during the school year 1999-2000. However, it will not be possible to extend the service immediately to all schools. It will have to be expanded in an orderly manner, in collaboration with the health board and voluntary agencies that also provide psychological services to children. Officials of my Department are 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.
The national educational psychological service agency will be a dedicated agency of my Department, whose sole purpose will be to provide a psychological service to schools. The psychologists will spend most of term time in the schools assigned to them. The report of the planning group for the new service recommended that psychologists would spend approximately 65 per cent of their time on casework and 35 per cent on general advisory work in schools.
