Vol. 509 No. 3
61 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Education and Science the extent to which he has achieved his objectives in respect of the placement of school psychologists and remedial teachers at second and third level schools on a county by county basis. [20189/99]
The national educational psychological service, NEPS agency, which I formally established on 1 September 1999, provides a psychological service to the second level schools in every county.
The NEPS agency is currently recruiting additional psychologists. It is envisaged that 25 recruits from this competition will be in post early in the new year and that a further 25 will be in post by the middle of the year 2000. This will mean that the national educational psychological service will have a greatly increased presence in each county by the end of next year.
With effect from the beginning of the current school year, all second level schools in the free education scheme have been given an allocation in respect of remedial. The allocation to individual schools is determined by the enrolment. Schools with enrolments of 600 or more pupils are allocated a full post, while schools with enrolments below 600 are allocated 0.5 of a post.
My Department has no role in relation to the provision of remedial and psychological services in third level colleges.
