Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for that response. As he is aware, guidance counsellors provide an invaluable service in schools, both in terms of the well-being of students and personal one-to-one counselling. Guidance counsellors have seen cuts of up to 53% since 2012. One-to-one counselling has also been cut by 27%. We need to restore that, but it must be ex quota. I have heard many teachers say it is unfair that their guidance counsellors are competing with teachers from other subject areas, therefore, it must be allocated outside the normal staffing schedule in schools.

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