Brian O'Shea
Ceist:194 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Education and Science if at least one educational psychologist will be appointed to the Waterford constituency in 2000; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4732/00]
Written Answers. - Psychological Service.
Two psychologists of the national educational psychological service already provide a service to all second level schools in County Waterford. There is no service available, as yet, to primary schools in the county.
A competition for recruitment to the NEPS agency is currently being organised by the civil service and local appointments commissioners. This is now at a very advanced stage and it is envisaged that there will be approximately 50 additional psychologists in post by the end of the year 2000. This will make a substantial difference to the level of service available in all areas of the country.
The general principles for deployment of additional staff have been agreed by the management committee of NEPS, in consultation with the NEPS national policy advisory board, which is representative of the main client groups. They have agreed that, after current vacancies have been filled, each new cohort of psychologists should be distributed between all regions, on a pro rata basis, according to the pupil numbers in each region. The ultimate target is that, by the end of the development phase of NEPS, end 2004, all schools will have ready access to educational psychologists.
For some time now, the management of NEPS has been collecting evidence of need on a county by county basis, using Government and Department statistics and data supplied by local interests. Within each region, priorities will be set according to these identified needs and to the level of current access to psychological services. The management of NEPS is aware of the particular problems of the Waterford area and will make every effort to ensure that these needs will be met as soon as additional psychologists become available.