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

A guidance counsellor is the first contact and a key person students seek out when they have a particular issue and these would be issues long before NEPS might become involved. We are now two and half months into the new school year and it is clear the impact for students of the measures the Minister introduced last year has been chronic and it is getting more difficult for them all the time. There is a need for the Minister to revisit this issue in the upcoming budget. The changes have created difficulties for students and we have seen particular instances of that. We have also seen tragic incidents recently of the increasing issues with which students have to deal and much of this also falls within the remit of the guidance counsellors. The Minister needs to revisit this in the budget and I ask him to commit to do that here today.

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