Terry Brennan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I woke up to four inches of snow this morning.

Ten miles away there was no sign of snow but that is how it goes. The delegation stated that bullying was common to all cultures throughout the world. I have no experience of bullying in the home but I believe children are being bullied in their homes and that it starts there. I have experiences of it. Then, consequently, it goes on to national school level. In some instances it might simply be by staring at people. I am concerned about this issue. In the case of three or four young children from a particular national school the natural progression would have been to the nearby secondary school, but since they were being bullied by people in the national school who were going to take the same steps to second level they changed their whole career and, in some cases, at grave expense by going to private schools to ensure that they would not be followed into second level. It concerns me that it will continue. Some children at national school are afraid to tell their parents in case their parents take action against those involved and things get worse. Parents and teachers have a significant part to play. Should national school teachers who have identified bullies in their school make the second level teachers aware of Terry Brennan or Patrick O'Donovan or whoever and explain that the second level teachers should watch out for the bullies coming from national school?