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

Guidance counsellors play an important role in schools. All that was done was to give leadership at secondary level the discretion to deploy the full array of time that the guidance teacher had in the school. It was a choice between doing that or increasing the pupil-teacher ratio. That was not a great choice to begin with, but I believe I took the better option. We are discussing guidance counsellors, but I think we are more concerned about the pastoral care and advice they give to young people. In the context of yesterday's funeral in Limerick after another tragedy, we must be acutely aware of the problems that arise in our schools. Last January, the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, and I published guidelines on mental health promotion and suicide prevention.

The guidelines were informed by consultation with key education and health partners and by the findings of current research. They provide practical guidance to post-primary schools on how they can promote mental health and well being in an integrated fashion. This is the point - it is not just one teacher's responsibility. Rather, it is a pastoral care issue for the entire school community. The guidelines go into some length and provide a great deal of comfort for that community in dealing with this problem, which has sadly become very real.

See this speech in context