Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I apologise but I must leave to attend a meeting with the Ceann Comhairle on the mindfulness initiative. I might ask a question and then I have to dash but I will check the answer later. On the counselling that has been tried and tested, we are not talking about career counselling but specifically counselling. I would love to know how it is being tried and tested, what schools in Ireland it was done in and how it compared to Australia and Canada. As Deputy Thomas Byrne said, there is a myth out there that the NEPS staff are almost like counsellors in that they come into schools and do one-to-one counselling but that is certainly not their job and that is certainly not happening so I would like to know exactly how and where it was tried and tested and how it compared internationally.