Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I may have misled the Deputy somehow. Some 50% has been restored. In other words, half of what was lost has been restored. The 0.3 relates to the pupil-teacher ratio. It refers to the improvement in the teacher ratio. Some 50% of what was lost has been returned to the schools and they have the discretion to allocate that resource as they choose. The guideline encourages them to use it for support.

I agree with the Deputy that support in the area of career guidance, educational guidance and personal and social development, which are the essence of the counselling service, is really important to pupils. That is why the programme for Government has reintroduced guidance counselling. It is also worth looking at how we can improve that. Having come from the enterprise brief, I believe access to career guidance can be considerably improved by giving better information from the industrial sector and by utilising people in other employments to supplement what is done by the school teacher within the school context. It is an area in respect of which I would like to think outside the box to develop career guidance, which is only a part of the counselling service.

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