Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I too commend Deputy Smith for bringing forward this motion to give Members on all sides of the House the opportunity to make a contribution to this debate.

The decision of the Government to make guidance counselling ex quota is forcing schools to make an impossible choice between keeping the guidance counselling service in the school or narrowing the subject choice made available to the students they serve. Both of these choices run contrary to what we need to be trying to achieve as a country. On the one hand, IDA Ireland and all the enterprise bodies are advising schools and the Government that we need to invest in science subjects and foreign languages, the very subjects which will be forfeited under this decision if schools decide to keep guidance counselling services. On the other, if they remove the lifeline that guidance counselling provides to students, over time we will see the consequences of that decision as well. The Government's decision shows no regard for the pressure young people are under today. Deputy Neville, from the Government's own benches, set out clearly those pressures. Every teacher in this country knows what those pressures are because they deal with them on a daily basis. By making guidance counselling ex quota, the Minister is demeaning the profession of guidance counselling and robbing students of a service which can help to steer them on the right path in life not only in terms of their career, but in terms of their life choices and lifestyle.

The wording the Minister, Deputy Quinn, put forward in his amendment is deeply cynical. It speaks of giving schools "discretion" and "greater freedom and autonomy to school principals". It speaks of all teachers having a duty of care to their students and the long and proud tradition of guidance counselling. It speaks of guidance being "a whole school activity". These are woolly words indeed. They have no meaning. It is empty rhetoric. The Minister is pulling the rug from under the guidance counselling profession and, more importantly, from under the students they serve.

The Minister tells schools, in the amendment, that they have a duty under the Education Act 1998 to provide guidance services to their students, but he is removing the very resources they use to provide that service. It must be pointed out that class teachers simply do not have the time to provide the quality of counselling or guidance that is required to students today, and every teacher in the country will tell the Minister that.

I understood this was a coalition Government. I must ask where is the Labour Party. For the past couple of weeks, every Labour Party Deputy has been telling every journalist that he or she could find that he or she managed to get a reversal on the cuts to disadvantaged DEIS schools. Clearly, they have abandoned the guidance counselling profession and the very students those professionals serve.

I am delighted to see such a full Gallery tonight. Those here tonight are not motivated by self-interest - God knows they have made enough sacrifice over the past number of years through various cuts imposed on them. They are here because they care about the students who benefit from the service they provide. That should give us all a lesson on what we need to do.

The Minister made a calculated decision in the budget that this cut would go through quietly and almost unnoticed, but he and every backbencher must know that it will have a corrosive effect which will become clear over time not only regarding the quality of the education that is provided, but on the society these students will enter as adults when they emerge from school.

The fundamental point at issue here tonight is the right of students to have access to a qualified guidance counsellor as and when they need it. Is the Government prepared to stand over that? I commend Deputy Smith for putting down this motion. I ask the Government to review what is a retrograde cut which it knows will come with a heavy long-term price for this country.

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