Yesterday the Government launched its first action report on bullying. It was launched with great fanfare and with a commitment to allocate €500,000 in dedicated funding this year. This report is to be welcomed and all the recommendations should be fully implemented. One recommendation is to spend time training parents to counter cyberbullying. Following the cuts to the guidance counselling services, however, secondary schools across the country are now expected to prevent bullying with one hand tied behind their backs.

These actions do not add up. They send the wrong message completely. The service provided by guidance counsellors in our schools was rightly built up over the past 20 years. In budget 2012 the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, removed the specific allocation for the country's 700 guidance teachers from second level schools. He told them that guidance counselling and provision should now be provided out of the general teacher allocations to schools. This was effectively a €35 million cut in guidance counselling services. That is matched with the allocation this year of €500,000 to the action report on bullying. It totally undermines any genuine attempt to tackle bullying in our schools. Cutting guidance counsellors cuts those who provide a firefighting service at second level.

Every Deputy is aware of the worrying surge in mental health problems among our young people. Ireland unfortunately has one of the highest suicide rates among youth in Europe. Does the Taoiseach accept that the Minister for Education and Skills made a serious mistake in cutting the guidance counsellor allocation in last year's budget? If this Government is serious about addressing the growing problem of bullying and youth mental health problems will it consider reinstating the guidance counsellors in second level schools?

This is not a matter for any individual teacher in any school.

Hear, hear.

The Minister devolved greater responsibility to each school in respect of career guidance and the opportunities for schools to restructure their teaching staff. The report to which the Deputy refers is very welcome. I hope that its guidelines will be implemented. It is part of an overall approach to dealing with this problem which causes a great deal of stress for young people and which has ended in tragic consequences in several cases. Young people are becoming more and more aware of the extent, range and content of bullying and as education and information becomes available about the dangers of this they respond to it. The Minister will not reverse his decision in respect of the treatment of schools generally. The decision to change the structure for career guidance is part of an overall school approach. The Minister is adamant that mental health is the responsibility of the teaching staff in general-----

Blame the teachers.

Unbelievable.

-----and the whole school community is involved in this depending on the numbers involved, or the individuals who might be vulnerable. The Minister is also confident that the guidelines will assist schools in providing the guidance and support that is needed. It is a matter of great concern and interest to everybody. The Minister has tried, given the constraints on him, to have a whole school approach to this. He made a decision in respect of career guidance to devolve greater responsibility for decision making to the schools, which they have taken on. We hope that the money allocated to this report, announced yesterday will aid teachers and the general community in dealing with the many problems that young people face.

The Taoiseach is blaming the teachers.

The €500,000 allocated to implementing this report comes against the background of the €35 million that the Minister for Education and Skills has taken away from the guidance counselling service. This does not empower schools. Schools used the €35 million that has been cut specifically for providing guidance counselling services. The Minister told the schools that they need to continue to provide that service but instead find the money from their other resources. That is the background against which the Government is introducing the anti-bullying guidelines launched yesterday. In no way has it empowered schools.

The Minister's and the Taoiseach's use of the term "whole school approach" is totally wrong. I agree absolutely that we need a "whole school approach" to mental health and to addressing bullying. What happens when an ordinary member of the teaching staff is engaging with a student and refers him or her down the line to a qualified guidance counsellor, 700 of whom were available until this year, and that student knocks on the door but there is nobody behind the door? That is not a whole school approach to dealing with this issue. We need to tackle a growing epidemic of mental health problems among our young people in recent times. The only way to do so is to examine the damage that cut has caused and reverse it. I ask the Taoiseach to give up the 'oul rhetoric that we have heard from him and from the Minister on this issue, rhetoric of "empowerment" of "giving more responsibility to schools". They have in fact cut a front-line service and if we are serious about this issue, as we all need to be, he needs to reverse the cut and provide the resources at school level that can ensure we give the protection, advice and support necessary to our young people who need it now more than ever.

The Deputy is aware that guidance provision is now managed from schools within their standard teacher allocation rather than separately, as had been the case. Schools continue to make provision for guidance and counselling and such decisions are made by principals in the best interest of their students. They know them, their environment and their interests and will have the best regard to using the resources available to them. As the Deputy is well aware, this is not the responsibility of any single individual; all teachers have an important role, including the year heads selected by students. That is often an important element to consider when bringing the difficulties that arise to the attention of school principals and leaders. The changes announced last year give greater autonomy to school principals in how they allocate resources to best meet the needs of their students. It is also worth pointing out that as part of the budgetary measures the Department helped to shelter the impact of this change, particularly for DEIS post-primary schools, by improving their standard staffing allocations.

The anti-bullying action plan announced by the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, and the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, set out 12 actions designed to help prevent and tackle bullying in schools. This is a 24-7 operation. Many young people are either the subject of bullying on a regular basis or are intent on bullying. I have talked to many young people who are well aware of fellow students and peers who become subject to this practice. Unfortunately it has ended in tragic consequences in a number of cases and we want to do everything we can to prevent that kind of outcome.