Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

No Government wants to reduce resources for the education system. However, it would be healthy if our debates on particular measures were based on reason and balance rather than ill-founded assumptions or judgments about how school leaders will manage the changed arrangements.

I will clarify a number of critical points. There has been no change to the Education Act 1998, which stipulates that provision for guidance is one of the many functions that schools must discharge from the resources available to them. Guidance is a whole school activity and under existing arrangements each school develops a guidance plan as a means of supporting the needs of all its students. These plans do not solely deal with the functions of guidance counsellors, important though they may be, because guidance requires the entire staff of a school to collaborate in supporting pupils' educational and general welfare needs. The circular on teacher allocations which will be issued shortly by the Department will make clear that the legal provisions of the 1998 Act remain in place and will point schools towards the relevant documentation and guidance required to support such work.

This budget measure makes changes to the way posts are allocated to schools rather than eliminating the guidance function. From September, there will not be a separate or specific allocation for guidance provision over and above the number of teachers to which a school is entitled under the general teacher allocation of 19:1. The Minister has acknowledged that the budget reductions create pressures and will require difficult choices at school level but schools will have discretion in balancing guidance needs with the pressure to provide subject choice.

While the removal of separate allocations for guidance will reduce the overall number of posts available to most schools, the 195 DEIS second level schools will be sheltered because we are introducing a more favourable staffing schedule of 18.25:1 for such schools.

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