Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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172. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills notwithstanding the fact that he stated in his reply on 17 June last that teachers, as highly trained individuals and responsible adults operating in a school environment, have the professional capacity or knowledge to deal with a significant number of the issues that arise in their classrooms on a daily basis, his views that counselling as described in his Department guidelines (details supplied) should only be carried out by a qualified guidance counsellor who is currently being professionally supervised by the teacher education section of his Department in this counselling work; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28040/14]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The guidelines referred to by the Deputy were published in 2005 at a time when a separate additional allocation was given to schools for guidance provision. My Department published Circular 0009/2012 – Staffing Arrangements in post-primary schools for the 2012/13 school year in February, 2012 to inform all post primary school management of the staffing arrangements for the 2012/13 school year and in particular, of the requirement to manage guidance from within the standard allocation with effect from the 2012/13 school year. Schools have autonomy in relation to how they use their standard staffing allocation for the provision of subjects to their students. The circular provided further autonomy to school Principals and boards to manage the provision of guidance from within their standard staffing allocation.

The circular, whilst acknowledging that the previously published documentation on the provision of guidance (the 2005 Guidelines and the Inspectorate publication in 2009 "Looking at Guidance") were published at a time when a separate additional allocation was given for guidance also made clear that schools should continue to find the this documentation as useful reference guides and resources in the preparation of the school guidance plans.