David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

First, I wish to welcome some visitors from Australia who are in the Public Gallery today with Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn.

I welcome the Minister to the House to discuss this important issue. I am sure, like me, the Minister has met parents and pupils in his constituency office who present with a case of bullying. It is a very difficult problem to deal with as a public representative, especially when one is a parent. My first thought is always about what I would do if I was in that situation. I have a six year old son who is in first class at the moment. If my son was to come home and tell me he was the victim of bullying, I would be very upset, obviously. We have tremendous empathy with the parents of children who are being bullied. Our first thoughts are always about how we can address the problem.

I went back over my case load and in the last three months I have dealt with six different cases of bullying in Waterford. I must say that the approach taken by all of the schools involved when I contacted them was first class. The systems they had in place were very good. The boards of management were very organised and took on board the points I expressed to them and worked with the parents of the children who were being bullied. Good work is being done in our schools in this area but is an area in which we are still learning. As previous Senators have said, the advent of social media and cyberbullying has made dealing with bullying an even greater challenge for all of us.

I missed the presentation given by representatives from Waterford Comhairle na nÓg yesterday but I heard that it involved young people sharing their experiences of what it was like to be victims of cyberbullying. We must learn from them and draw from their experiences. The Ombudsman for Children spoke at an event I attended when I was first elected to the Seanad. She talked about children's rights and said that the first thing we must do is listen to children. We are not very good at listening to children. We think we understand what they go through. We think we understand their issues but as a State, we do not listen to the concerns of children, as is clear from happened to children here over a long number of years. We do not listen to their concerns. We should draw lessons from the Ombudsman for Children in that regard. The best thing we can do to address the issue of bullying is to try to understand what children go through, how it happens and then learn lessons from that.