Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 106 and 107 together.

Guidance is a whole-school activity and not just a matter for school guidance counsellors alone. Under existing arrangements each school develops a whole-school guidance plan as a means of supporting the needs of its students. I acknowledge that bringing guidance provision within quota is challenging for schools but this must be seen in the context of our very difficult budgetary constraints. The alternative was to adjust the staffing schedule. I explained this to the Institute of Guidance Counsellors when I met its members after the budget.

As part of the budgetary measures, my Department helped shelter the impact for DEIS post-primary schools by improving their standard staffing allocations. My Department has existing arrangements in place for providing short-term support to schools that are dealing with particularly acute incidents that arise due to tragic accidents, bereavements and so on.

On helping to improve how we tackle bullying I expect to receive the action plan in the coming weeks from the working group I established to look at this issue.

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