I understand from the national educational psychological service – NEPS – agency that it currently provides a service for a total of 18 primary schools in County Wicklow, all of which are located in the greater Bray-Greystones area.
The expansion of the NEPS is currently under way in line with a five year plan. The objective is to provide every primary and post-primary school in the country with an educational psychological service by 2004. At present, there are 75 psychologists serving with the NEPS, including 26 new staff appointed since 1 September 2000. As soon as the newly appointed psychologists have completed their induction training, they will be deployed in schools.
NEPS psychologists are organised in ten regions corresponding to the health board regions. It is intended to assign newly appointed psychologists to all regions according to the student numbers in each. This will mean an annual improvement in the psychological service in each region until the staffing target has been reached. It is envisaged that there will ultimately be some 15 psychologists serving the east coast area, which includes County Wicklow.