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

At the end of last week I had a workshop in Galway and detected that in schools there is a huge appetite for this programme. School authorities recognise that this is an area in which they need to improve. A lot of pressures are coming on schools with expectations from pupils who are experiencing difficulties and they must respond.

We have developed some excellent tools to support them, including self-evaluation, guidance, continuous professional development and upskilling. The challenge is to roll that out and see that capability is built upon. To that end, we are restoring counselling and some 400 posts have already been committed to for guidance counselling in schools. We are also committed to increasing NEPS, the National Educational Psychological Service, by 25%. We are therefore trying to grow the resource that will help schools to undertake self-evaluation as well as providing techniques and tools that have been developed.

I share the Deputy's view that this is a very important area to work upon. From my experience, there is a huge appetite in schools to make this work. I see the Wellbeing programme at junior cycle in particular as an opportunity to put down some clear self-evaluation markers and improvement processes within the schools in order to deliver this programme to the highest quality.

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