Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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537. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of providing one additional guidance counsellor positions for schools with more than six hundred students. [48617/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Department has committed considerable resources towards the restoration of guidance counselling hours to post-primary schools, to the provision of CPD for guidance counsellors and to the provision of a national guidance counselling supervision service for post-primary guidance counsellors in recent times.

The guidance allocation is provided separately and transparently on each school's staffing schedule. These posts have been ring-fenced so they can only be used for guidance activities and to meet the guidance needs of the school.

Current expenditure on guidance counsellors posts in second level schools stands at €76.5 million.

There are 350 post primary schools with an enrolment in excess of 600 pupils. The average cost of a post primary teacher is currently €78,490.