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

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue, which goes to the very heart of making sure that resilience is built in the young people who come through our education system, in a world where there are increasing pressures on them. I assure the Deputy that I am absolutely committed to the agreement we have made to restore guidance counsellors. To date we have restored 400, with 300 this September and another 100 next September. The total restoration will amount to 600.

We are fully committed to that. Not only that, we are also rolling out a well-being programme at junior cycle and committing significant resources to make that a reality. We are increasing the service from the National Educational Psychological Service to support schools in the implementation of policies across the schools to ensure that they provide an environment where young people feel safe, respected, valued and their resilience is built. We have specifically required in our disadvantage plan that disadvantaged schools have proper guidance support provided. We are fully committed to that.

We are also committed to ensuring that the resource of guidance counselling will be ring-fenced within schools and that it will deliver to targets. We will be monitoring the performance of schools in ensuring that adequate support in guidance is provided in every school. I have had a number of meetings about well-being and can say that there is huge energy within the schools, not only to restore guidance, but to build much deeper relationships with groups in the wider community to ensure that the environment within schools is the best possible for supporting young people who are vulnerable to pressures that would not have been in place when I was at school. We are committed to this. In addition, this year, we are providing for open hours so that there would be access to guidance support at a given time every week in every school, so that people could bring issues to someone who is professionally in a position to assist them. This is an area in which I share the Deputy's commitment and we will roll out the service.

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