Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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625. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to restore ex-quota allocations for Guidance Counsellors; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36034/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The Deputy will be aware that I have made provision in Budget 2016 for some 2,260 additional teaching posts for our primary and post primary schools next year. These posts will provide for an improvement in the staffing schedules at primary and post primary levels, enhance the leadership and management roles of deputy principals at post-primary level by reducing their teaching time, an improvement to the scheme of release time for principal teachers at primary level and additional resource posts to meet special education needs.

The allocation of a whole time equivalent of an additional 300 teachers to second level schools brings the basis of allocation from 19:1 to 18.7:1 for the school year 2016/17. This improvement of 0.3 in PTR allocation is a restoration of 50% of the teaching resources that were removed when the allocation of guidance posts was brought within quota. The delivery of the 50% restoration through a change in the PTR allocation will allow each school to determine how best to allocate the additional resources to meet the guidance needs of the school.

The Department's Guidelines in relation to how Guidance should operate within schools will be updated for the next school year to reflect the change in the allocation process. The Guidelines will underpin the responsibility of every school to make sure that they use this additional staffing to meet their obligations to provide guidance counselling support to all students. When the allocation for guidance was brought within quota DEIS schools were protected from the change by providing for a 18.25:1 allocation compared to the general 19:1 allocation. The position of DEIS schools will be further enhanced by a change to an allocation on the basis of 17.95:1.