Ms Niamh Bakker:

There was a question about the availability of counselling and mental health supports. The rate of people who were satisfied with the availability of mental health supports was quite low. To us, the solution is to put extra money into having a counsellor in a school. In many schools we have spoken to through our national executive members and our own comhairlí, counsellors are only present one or twice a week, which is not sufficient for a whole school with 1,000 students. Having a counsellor there constantly would be much more beneficial and the rate of satisfaction would go through the roof if people had more access to counselling and mental health support. Staffing is the main issue.