Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 10 February 2026
636. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Education and Youth the number of persons currently in training to become a qualified psychologist with the National Educational Psychological Services. [10309/26]
View answerI would like to take this opportunity to outline the work of my department in this area more broadly and the role of NEPS. All schools have access to:
• General support and advice from a NEPS psychologist, either through the school’s assigned psychologist or through the NEPS Advisory Support Line. The NEPS Advisory Support line provides access for schools to support and advice from a Senior Educational Psychologist in NEPS via a designated phone line available from Monday to Friday.
Public Jobs each year hold a competition for the recruitment of educational psychologists for employment in NEPS. This competition attracts candidates who have trained in colleges in Ireland also some who have trained outside of Ireland.
• Support from a NEPS psychologist in the event of a Critical Incident.
• National and Regional Support and Development service for school staff, which is advertised through the Education Support Centres of Ireland and covers areas such as trauma informed practice, cluster group support for post-primary special education teachers and special class teachers, training for Student Support Teams and supporting reluctant school attendance/school avoidance behaviour.
• Access for individual casework where a priority need is established to either a NEPS psychologist or a private educational psychologist on the Scheme for Commissioning Psychological Assessments (SCPA) panel. In order to join the panel, private educational psychologists must meet qualification criteria set by the Department. The scheme is an interim measure intended to supplement the NEPS service and meet current urgent needs for psychological assessment of children and young people.
Since January 2023, the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) has supported bursaries for Trainee Educational Psychologists who are enrolled in the University College Dublin Professional Doctorate in Educational Psychology and Mary Immaculate College Limerick’s Professional Doctorate in Educational and Child Psychology and extended the bursary scheme to the newly established Professional Doctorate in Educational Psychology (D.Ed.Psych) at Maynooth University in September 2025. To date 108 bursaries have been provided.
