THE DEPARTMENT of Education has confirmed that some 21 additional psychologists are to be hired by the commencement of the 2017 / 2018 school year, following a national recruitment competition.

Some 11 of these new recruits are set to be in place by the end of this school year.

Fianna Fáil TD for Wexford, James Browne, recently highlighted that some 29 schools across County Wexford are currently without the services of their own psychologist.

Deputy Browne described the figure as deeply worrying and said it clearly demonstrated that the schools’ psychologist system was in crisis.

“We have known for some time that the school psychologist service is drastically understaffed.

“For example, in most instances it takes over a year for students to be assessed for special education needs,” he said.

The schools he referenced are not directly served by the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS), which provides psychologists to primary and secondary schools in the county and is concerned with learning, behaviour, social and emotional development.

As the Department spokesperson stated, however, schools which are not directly provided with a NEPS psychologist have access to services provided indirectly via the Scheme for Commissioning Psychological Assessments (SCPA).

Read more in the Wexford Echo.