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

The position is that we have made provision in a circular that the provision for guidance counselling would be ring-fenced. It is in accordance with the approach to guidance counselling, which is a whole-school guidance counselling approach, that was adopted by Deputy Thomas Byrne's leader in the 2000s. At this stage, we have restored 50% of the provision. It will rise to 66% this coming September.

Deputy Thomas Byrne raised with me concerns that the management bodies had issued some directive. We have confirmed with them that there has not been any such directive. We are issuing the provision. We are ensuring that this is a ring-fenced provision for guidance counselling. We will, if necessary, inspect to ensure that. We will be conducting a survey to establish fully the practise that is going on.

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