Politicians must stand up to the "faceless mandarins" in the Department of Finance and allow all our citizens to fulfil their potential, according to an influential education figure.
Mr Brian Mooney, president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, said the tight approach to public finances was holding back those who had not been able to complete their education.
This approach was counterproductive, he said, as the economy was unable to benefit from the potential skills of these people.
In his presidential address, Mr Mooney said: "It is now time for those that we have elected to represent us to stop prevaricating, and have the courage and political will to tell the faceless mandarins in the Department of Finance that this is our country as well as theirs. Donagh O'Malley did it in his day, and we as a nation will forever be in his debt."
Guidance counsellors, he said, demand that vulnerable children of 12 and 13 be entitled, as a right, to a world-class guidance and counselling service. The rights of the disabled and adult learners must also be recognised without reference to budgetary constraints.
"Many adults in this society had abandoned education at a young age and were coping with major literacy and numeracy problems without the support they need."
Mr Mooney said the education service was still recovering from a generation of budget cuts.
In the last 15 years, the basic right to guidance and counselling services for children in our schools was "cut in half, and is still truncated to this day".
Mr Mooney said the recent OECD report found that the Republic is providing one of the best guidance and counselling services in the world.
However, the system, especially in junior cycle in second-level schools, was still suffering because of cuts made in the 1980s "when our present Minister for Education and Science was a guidance counsellor himself".
He said a decision to restore the service to a proper level would "enable us to provide an effective service to all our clients, be they the young students in education or adults attempting to return to education".
Last night, the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Dempsey, announced the extension of the Guidance Enhancement Initiative until 2006, with the number of posts increased from 50 to 80.
