State Examinations Dail Éireann — 2021-05-13 ============================================================ Norma Foley (FF), Kerry I reiterate the particular interest that I have, as has the Deputy, in the well-being of students and, beyond that, for the entire school community. It is important to consider that the experience of Covid-19 has created challenges for us all, so I include the wider school community when considering the need to provide resources and support for well-being. As the Deputy has referenced the cohort of students who will take the leaving certificate examinations next year, I want to be clear that even in the budget in October, I was conscious of the need for supports and making additional school counsellors available. I was pleased that more than 100 additional posts for guidance counsellors were provided in our schools. I referred earlier to the provision of a substantial number of additional NEPS psychologists. NEPS has been working with schools to roll out specific programmes that identify, promote and enhance the existing well-being structures in our schools. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2021-05-13/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:16+00:00 Sitting date: 2021-05-13