Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister for his reply. There is widespread concern, as the Minister is aware from correspondence to himself and to all Members of the Oireachtas, about the difficulties facing this service in schools. As we all know, the career guidance and counselling service does not just offer final year support; it is used throughout second level, whether that is five or six years, and in many instances pre-secondary school as well. That support is absolutely necessary. I recently spoke to a person who had returned to the classroom as the deputy principal of a second level school after working elsewhere for a number of years. That lady said to me that the school did not have a disciplinary problem, but there were a large number of young students bringing family problems with them to school. The first person to speak to in that school about difficult personal or family issues is the career guidance counsellor.

The service has grown incrementally and progressively over the past 25 years in particular. More than 90% of career guidance counsellors have participated in continuous professional development courses, and an excellent service is being provided to our young people at second level and in further education colleges. Does the Minister accept that retention levels at second and third level are very much influenced by the availability of good advice and guidance to young people right through second level and when they go on to further education or third level in regard to course choice? There is empirical evidence available - both nationally, from some of our own institutions such as the ESRI, and from the OECD and others - that it is an extremely important and worthwhile investment.

The people who have been in touch with all of us as Members of the Oireachtas and as public representatives have outlined clear reasons for their concern that the career guidance counselling service will be dramatically downgraded due to the decision to include the teachers involved in the general teacher allocation from 2012.

See this speech in context