Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I accept the importance of well-being and anxiety being addressed in the school environment, both for students and the wider community in the schools. I have already referred to some supports that are available to the wider school community. On well-being for our students, the Deputy is quite correct. As I said, 120 additional guidance counsellor posts have been allocated. That is important and brings the number up to the 2011 benchmark. The value of having guidance hours available in the school is unquantifiable. I am personally aware of how well that works in the schools. I am pleased that we have made those 120 posts available.

Some 17 additional NEPS psychologist posts have been made available to support the work of schools. There are 221 full-time equivalent posts in the schools, so there are approximately 250 people.