Some 40 educational psychologists in the public service are to withdraw co-operation from the long-promised independent schools psychology service because the Department of Education has refused to give undertakings over their employment status.
The action would effectively stymie plans for the National Educational Psychology Service (NEPS) to get under way as scheduled this month.
The NEPS was set to recruit up to 200 educational psychologists from the public and private sectors to fill the "serious gap" identified two years ago in a report by a departmental planning group. The report found that about 11.2 per cent of the 815,000 school population could be in need of an educational psychologist.
These included students suffering from a significant physical, sensory, intellectual or emotional disability, - as well as those with a mild or specific learning disability, or people with emotional or behavioural disorders.
It is understood that up to 50 additional educational psychologists were to be recruited this year. The contract being offered to the recruits stipulates that the Minister for Education intends to review the NEPS by the end of this year when a decision will be made as to whether it will become a statutory corporation, as provided for under the Education Act, 1998.
In the event, it said, those educational psychologists holding civil service status who become NEPS employees must agree to forfeit that status.