The ‘tyranny of time’: getting to the heart of the impact of educational cuts on the provision of guidance counselling in Ireland

The Irish Education Act (Government of Ireland 1998) stipulates that each young person in secondary school in Ireland is entitled to access ‘appropriate’ guidance. It has been argued that this very right has been eroded since Budget 2012, where resource re-allocations in guidance counselling are obstructing the requirement for schools to implement this section of the Act. This qualitative study explored the effects of ‘educational cutbacks’ from the perspective of guidance counsellors. Findings from interviews with guidance counsellors, suggest that the effects of such cutbacks in guidance counselling are far-reaching and ultimately students are the one’s losing out. The paper proposes that there is a need to reinstate guidance counselling hours to allow guidance counsellors provide a comprehensive service to young people–which they are entitled to.