Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy may be aware that the initial policy idea around mainstrreaming guidance provision and sharing responsibility for it across the teaching community in individual schools came from principals. Since September 2012 guidance provision has been organised by school management from within the staffing schedule allocation. There is every reason to expect, as the country's economic position improves, that additional teaching resources will be made available to schools, but it is and should remain the decision of the school managers, board of management and teaching staff how the resources are allocated. There is no reason to make a distinctive demarcation between the role of the guidance counsellor and the implied role of guidance counselling across the teaching profession. That is the thinking behind this. It is not about limiting resources for schools; it is about giving them the autonomy to make the decision and suggesting to other teachers that they have a significant role to play in guidance provision. Such provision can take place in a formal classroom setting or outside the classroom, while a one-to-one service should be available for pupils who are experiencing difficulties.

With regard to schools subject to significant challenges, the Department helped to shelter the impact on DEIS post-primary schools by improving their standard staffing allocation. All 195 second level schools in DEIS have been given targeted supported by a more favourable staffing schedule of 18.25:1. This is a 0.75 reduction compared to the existing PTR of 19:1 that applies in non-fee paying second level schools.

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