Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire
Question:643. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost to reverse cuts to guidance counselling and to ensure one counsellor for each 500 students. [34665/19]
View answerTuesday, 23 July 2019
Questions (643)
Written answers
Measures announced by my Department as part of Budgets 2016, 2017 and 2018 mean that 500 of the 600 guidance posts that were withdrawn in Budget 2012, were restored to schools from September 2018.
These 500 posts are allocated 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.
The estimated cost of one guidance counsellor per 500 pupils would require approximately 250 posts in addition to the 500 posts which have been restored in Budgets 2016, 2017 and 2018 in the region of €15 million per annum.