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

The Deputy is misrepresenting what I decided in the previous budget. I have mainstreamed guidance counsellor teachers within the overall allocation of teachers to post-primary schools.

I have entrusted the redeployment or deployment of that resource, both the subject teacher who is also a guidance teacher, to the principal or the deputy principal of the school as they see fit. That is a right and proper thing to do at a time of scarce resources. The alternative was for guidance counsellors to be considered outside the general allocation and to be confined, which would have meant that they would not be eligible to be redeployed even if there was a need for redeployment or the capacity for them to be redeployed. This was conveyed to me by a number of different principals The decision as to provide for the allocation of guidance teachers who have subject specialties to be redeployed as the principal sees fit and that is a delegation of responsibility and power, which many principals have welcomed because they previously did not have it.

Where the numbers are such that a full-time guidance counsellor is required, he or she will continue to provide that work. I will ask departmental officials to examine the survey in detail and to meet representatives of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors to explore the detail of how this happening. Let us be clear about this. We are in a position where all of us in the House and across the country are being asked to do more with less and guidance counsellors are no different in that respect from anybody else.

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