Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Section 9(c) of the 1998 Act places direct responsibility on the Minister and schools to provide guidance counselling. The Minister of State is not in a position, given what he has said, to honour his commitments to students throughout the country. He is involved in a process of false economy and the costs to the Department and the State in the long term will be greater as a result of the increased social problems, with which students will have to contend, and difficulties with progression to third level, with increasing numbers of students dropping out in first and second year because adequate counselling was not available to them and they failed to make the correct choices based on what was suitable for them.

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