Mr. David Duffy:

There are a few strands to the Deputy's question. There is a need for a HSCLO in every school. At the moment, HSCLOs are only available in DEIS schools. We are looking at around 30% of all schools in the country but bullying is not restricted to any one sector or individual school. We must deal with it across the system so there needs to be a HSCLO for that vital liaison between, as Mr. Ryan mentioned, the home and the school. As the Deputy noted, this is not just an issue where a school, home or community can fix a problem. It is across the entire system so HSCLOs play a vital role in that.

Ms Piggott mentioned the importance of guidance. There has been an increase in guidance support over the past few years, which needs to be recognised, but we do not have the ex quota guidance support we had previously. I note the second topic with which we are dealing today is the impact on mental health. Guidance counsellors in post-primary schools are the main line of defence in respect of this. Year heads are the very first line of defence in post-primary schools. Again, as Ms Piggott mentioned, we have seen a significant cut in middle management posts of the order of almost 50%. There has been some alleviation over recent years, including one quite recently, but we are still a very long way off where we were ten years ago. They are often the ones who will see a student is having difficulties.