Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 8 Dec 1999

Vol. 512 No. 4

Hospitals Building Programme. - Counselling Centres.

Mrs. B. Moynihan-Cronin

The future of the expert professional counselling service which has been provided by Killarney Counselling Centre to schools throughout Kerry remains uncertain. Since last October, the funding for this service has ceased and there appears to be no indication that the money will be forthcoming for its continuation.

The expert counselling service to schools has proved to be very valuable. Over the past two years of its operation, 232 sessions have been provided in schools in Killarney, various places in south Kerry and Castleisland in north Kerry. In 1996 a report by the local partnership recommended that an adequately resourced psychological service should be implemented as a matter of priority. Following this, a psychologist was recruited on a pilot basis and was located in the Killarney Counselling Centre.

In addition, in 1998, the centre employed a full-time adolescent counsellor to meet the needs of students in the aforementioned schools. The salary for this post has been mainly funded by the partnership. As a further expansion of the programme, an outreach service to Kenmare and Killorglin was launched last year by the Minister for Education and Science. However, only a year later, funding for this service is to end.

In an evaluation of the service by South Kerry Partnership, it was identified that the localised nature of the service meant it was very accessible. This was further underlined by the fact that students did not have to pay for the service. However, one of the most significant benefits identified by the evaluation was that school staff found the service to have been of great significance and benefit to pupils, with the number of students staying on to sit the leaving certificate increasing significantly.

In an age when qualifications are an essential pre-requisite to entry into the labour market, every effort should and must be made to reduce early school leaving. Obviously such efforts cost money but investment in the reduction of early school leaving now should and could have a significant return later.

The teaching staff at the schools where the service has been in operation are of the view that the service has made a huge difference to individual pupils who may have had a number of complex problems associated with family, bad learning experiences and other forms of disadvantage. I understand that the cost of continuing this service would be in the region of £20,000, a small price to pay for a reduction in early school leaving as well as improved student-teacher relations.

The school service is very valuable and necessary and has proved itself during its pilot phase. At this point, it must be developed and mainstreamed. I appeal to the Minister, whatever else he does, to find funds to continue the service for the children of south Kerry who deserve it.

Dr. Moffatt

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. My colleague, the Minister for Education and Science, would like to take this opportunity to clarify the services provided by the Department of Education and Science for young people who are in need of counselling, including the recently established National Educational Psychological Service Agency.

At the outset, however, I wish to explain that my understanding in relation to the counselling centre in Killarney is that it has attracted a funding subvention from the South Kerry Development Partnership for some years. The counselling service was originally made available to three post-primary schools in Killarney and was later extended to the whole of south Kerry.

In 1997 when the Killarney Counselling Centre was established, the Department of Education and Science was already funding a guidance service in second level schools. When students required more specialised counselling than could be catered for by the school guidance counsellor, advice was sought from a psychologist employed by the Department of Education and Science.

Very soon after the Minister for Education and Science took office in 1997 he realised that there was a need to expand his Department's psychological service in order to meet demand. There was a need to increase the level of support at second level and to extend it to the primary sector. The Minister for Education and Science immediately set up a planning group, representative of the partners in education, which reported to him during the second half of 1998.

Following his acceptance of the recommendations of the planning group, the Minister, Deputy Martin, secured early this year Government agreement for the establishment of the National Educational Psychological Service – NEPS – Agency. This agency has delegated authority to develop and provide an educational psychological service to all students who need it in primary and post-primary schools and in other relevant centres supported by the Department of Education and Science.

In June 1999 the Minister for Education and Science appointed an acting director and NEPS was formally established from 1 September 1999. On that date 42 psychologists already employed by the Department of Education and Science transferred to the new agency.

The expansion of the NEPS agency is now beginning. Interviews for 25 new psychologists have recently been completed and it is hoped that the new appointees will take up their positions early in the new year. Arrangements are also in train to appoint a further five senior psychologists who will be in their posts shortly after Christmas. Interviews for a further 25 psychologists are scheduled to begin during the first half of January 2000.

My colleague, the Minister for Education and Science, is committed to the development of a quality educational psychological service that will adequately meet the needs of our children and young people. It is essential, therefore, that the expansion of NEPS should proceed in a phased, orderly and equitable manner, beginning immediately after Christmas.

The NEPS psychologists will also work individually with a number of students. For example, they will work with students with learning difficulties who have not responded to remedial teaching or with mild emotional and behavioural difficulties who may respond to a limited number of counselling sessions. Students who have difficulties that require detailed multi-disciplinary assessment, family intervention or long-term therapeutic counselling will be referred to specialist clinical services.

Detailed discussions between NEPS and local interests in the south Kerry area will begin as soon as possible. The aim will be to establish which part of the work of the Killarney Counselling Centre is appropriate to NEPS and to arrange for a phased transfer of such responsibility. It would at the moment be premature for the Minister for Education and Science to agree to support all the activities of the centre. He has to consider the needs of all areas of the country and of students at all levels. However, the Minister, Deputy Martin, can assure the Deputy that it is intended that NEPS will have taken on the counselling work appropriate to it by the end of its five year development period. Meanwhile, he hopes that other agencies that provide counselling services may consider continuation of such provision pending the full development of NEPS.

The Dáil adjourned at 12.05 a.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 9 December 1999.