Bernard Allen
Ceist:103 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Education and Science if he has satisfied himself with the pace of development of the national psychological service. [11861/00]
Written Answers. - Psychological Service.
Recruitment to the National Educational Psychological Service Agency, NEPS, is organised by the Civil Service and Local Appointments Commission. The Commission has now completed the process of selecting additional suitably qualified psychologists, who will join the agency in two stages. It is hoped that the first group will begin to take up their posts during the current school year.
I anticipate that, by the end of the year 2000, when the current selection process has been completed, nearly 100 psychologists will be in post. As this is half the eventual target of 200 psychologists, by the end of this year there will be a marked improvement in the level of service being offered by NEPS.
I am happy to say that there was considerable interest in the current competition, with over 250 applications received by the commission. As a result, the recruitment process has taken longer than anticipated, since short-listing and interviewing of this number of applicants took a considerable amount of time.