Minister for Education Jan O'Sullivan has said there is a need to strengthen mental health services in schools.
Ms O'Sullivan said she hoped that extra funding will be in place over the next few years.
Funding is required to build-up services, especially the National Educational Psychological Service.
She said: "I think that we would certainly want to strengthen that service. It is now available in 100% of schools; it wasn't quite available in all schools up to recently.
"But certainly when there is extra funding, and we hope there will be in the next few years, I will be looking at various areas like that and I do think it's important that these areas are part of that consideration."
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, the minister also acknowledged that they "could do with more" than the 170 psychologists currently working within the education system.
Her comments come as the Irish Primary Principals' Network described mental health services in primary schools as "grossly inadequate".
IPPN President Brendan McCabe told Morning Ireland that there are not enough psychologists in NEPS to deal with the different problems children are facing these days.
He said it is not good enough to have 170 psychologists in the NEPS system catering for the needs of 850,000 children.
Minister O'Sullivan also said that schools should do everything they can to raise awareness of mental health issues.
She pointed out that there were programmes in place such as Stay Safe and the Social and Personal Health Education (SPHE), which she however acknowledged were not compulsory.
One in five report moderate to severe mental health problems
Meanwhile, Headstrong, a national organisation to help promote positive mental health in young people, said that one in five young people in Ireland have reported moderate to severe mental health problems in Ireland and this cannot be ignored.
It said that schools are feeling overwhelmed and cannot cope with the level of mental health distress they are seeing in students.
Ms O'Sullivan said that she and the teacher unions have also agreed on a well-being model in Junior Cycle, which will include a compulsory SPHE programme.
In a statement to Morning Ireland, the Institute of Guidance Counsellors (IGC) said it hopes that the minister would restore the guidance allocation to schools and colleges of further.
The institute said guidance counsellors are unavailable to students experiencing mental health difficulties including depression, self-harm and suicidal ideation.
It said many young people are without the professional support they need and deserve since the removal of the ex-quota allocation in Budget 2012.
The IGC conducted research into the current practice of guidance counselling in schools and found that now many young people cannot access the assistance of guidance counsellors when they most need them.
Concerns were also expressed for mental health services at third-level, with the Union of Students in Ireland worried about a four- to six-week wait to see a counsellor.
