256. Deputy Barry Ward asked the Minister for Education and Youth if her attention has been drawn to the difficulties accessing educational psychology assessments and appropriate educational supports for children that attend a school (details supplied) and the wider issue of availability of educational psychology services in the wider Blackrock and Booterstown area. [74972/26]

The National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) provides educational psychological support to all schools. Due to a national shortage of suitably qualified educational psychologists not all schools have an assigned educational psychologist.  For those schools without an assigned educational psychologist, the school will be supported by NEPS through the Advisory Support Service. All schools continue to have support in the event of a critical incident through the local NEPS office and has access to training and support from NEPS for school staff.

Through the NEPS Advisory Support Service, schools have an opportunity to access responsive support and advice from a NEPS psychologist. The educational psychologist can provide advice and support and where the need is established can sanction an assessment through the Scheme for the Commissioning of Psychological Assessments (SCPA). Schools can contact the service as needed throughout the school year.

The Department is making every effort to recruit additional educational psychologists to address the shortage. Public Jobs recently concluded a recruitment campaign for the recruitment of educational psychologists and educational psychologists from that panel will join NEPS over the coming months.

The Department of Education is supporting bursaries for trainee educational psychologists enrolled in the Professional Doctorate in Educational Psychology programmes in University College Dublin and in NUI Maynooth and on the Mary Immaculate College Limerick’s Professional Doctorate in Educational and the Child Psychology. Those in receipt of a bursary support the work of NEPS through trainee placements in the service as part of their studies and commit to joining NEPS upon graduation. Furthermore another professional doctorate programme for educational psychology has been announced in Dublin City University, with the first intake of students this month.