Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In the last month or so, as schools have come back for the new term, we have started to see the real impact on students on the ground of the Minister's decision in last year's budget to abolish the ex quota allocation of hours for guidance counselling. When the Minister removed the ex quota allocation last year, he told schools they had to make do with the guidance provision and take it from their standard teaching hours instead. That has put all schools across the country under pressure in terms of the service they used to be able to provide. In many cases, it has led to a vast reduction in the number of guidance hours being provided.

A recent unfortunate incident in County Wexford has received widespread media coverage. A student who was seeking to see a guidance counsellor, but was not able to do so, was subsequently hospitalised. When this was brought to the attention of the Department of Education and Skills, an additional allocation of 11 hours was provided to the school. That happened after the event. There is an onus on the Minister to ask for an assessment across the rest of the country so we can see the impact this cut is having. It is not good enough for the Minister to respond after a serious incident. If the school in question needed an additional 11 hours, why would other schools across the country not need additional hours as well?

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