Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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246. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills with reference to a reply to a parliamentary question dated 7 March 2014 (details supplied), if he considers the support provided in second level schools by a professionally qualified guidance counsellor to all students, as set out in section 9(c) of the Education Act 1998, to be valuable but not in any way a requirement to effectively deliver on his Department's policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17746/14]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Section 9 (c) of the Education Act requires schools to use their available resources to ensure that students have access to appropriate guidance to assist them in their educational and career choices. Since September 2012 guidance provision is now provided from within the overall staffing allocation of the school. This gives schools greater autonomy to determine how they deploy their teaching resources across the competing needs of the school. Guidance and counselling is a whole school responsibility with guidance counsellors playing their part within an overall team approach.

The representative organisations for School Principals and school management developed a framework that assists schools on how best to manage the provision of guidance from within their staffing allocation. Wherever possible, group work and class based activity should be used to maximise the amount of time available for those pupils that are in most need of one to one support.

I am confident schools act in the best interests of students when determining how best to use the teaching resources available to them.