Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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181. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the extent to which he expects to be in a position to augment the career guidance service throughout second level education; his views on whether there will be an improvement in the short and medium term; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10751/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Action Plan for Education 2016-2019 has a specific action to enhance guidance counselling at second-level as resources permit.

A significant move was made in the 2016/17 school year with the restoration of half of the cut in provision for guidance counselling. This was the equivalent to the restoration of 300 posts.

The delivery of the 50% restoration through a change in the staffing schedule allowed each school to determine how best to allocate the additional resources to meet the guidance needs of the school.  This additional resource was to complement existing resources in order to best meet the guidance needs of the school in line with the school's guidance plan.

It is important to note that in previous changes to guidance counselling allocations in 2012, as a consequence of the Budget adjustment which had to be made at the time, all DEIS schools were effectively sheltered from these changes as a result of the more favourable staffing schedule of 18.25:1. This was a 0.75 point improvement compared to the current PTR of 19:1 that applied in non-fee-paying second-level schools.

That was a very important protection for the cohort of our schools in DEIS most in need of support.  DEIS schools also further benefitted from the 0.3 improvement to the staffing schedule which gave them an enhanced allocation on the basis of 17.95:1 in respect of the 2016/17 school year.

Budget 2017 has made provision for over 2,400 additional teaching posts for our primary and post primary schools next year. These posts will provide for an enhancement to the guidance counselling allocation, enhance the leadership and management roles of deputy principals at post-primary level, provide for individual professional time for teachers of Junior Cycle, additional posts to meet the demographic needs and additional resource posts to meet special education needs.

As a result of the decision to further enhance the guidance allocation to schools and provide schools with a separate allocation for guidance outside of the quota, the pupil teacher ratio (PTR) will revert to 19:1 with effect from September 2017.  The guidance allocation will be shown separately on the staffing schedules and will represent 0.4 of the PTR for each school. DEIS schools will have a guidance allocation of 1.15 of the PTR which represents the total guidance allocation that was restored to these schools.