15 Mrs. Barnes asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will make funds available to schools to pay for private psychological assessment of pupils. [2843/02]

In June 2001 I made funding of €1.59 million available to the national educational psychological service agency for it to develop a scheme that would enable schools to pay for private psychological assessments. Guidelines for the scheme for commissioning psychological assessments from private practitioners were issued to the principals of all primary and post-primary schools in August 2001 by NEPS. This scheme is a short-term, interim measure pending the expansion of the service provided by NEPS to all schools. Schools that do not yet have access to the NEPS service are eligible to avail of the scheme.