Dr. Tony Gaynor:

I thank the Chairman and the members of the joint committee for giving me an opportunity to contribute to the committee’s consideration of the issue of concussion in sport from the perspective of the Department of Education and Skills. I work in the Department's curriculum and assessment policy unit. I am accompanied by Mr. Seánie McGrath, who is a post-primary subject inspector for physical education.

The Department recognises the seriousness of concussion and its potential impact on an individual's well-being. It is aware that concussion can happen to anyone, at any stage of life and at any time. It is not the case that it only happens during school time or on school premises, or that it only arises in the context of sports or other physical activities. The Department's focus is on ensuring school authorities are equipped with the appropriate knowledge and skills to enable them to promote pupil safety during school time or during the many extra-curricular activities that are supported by schools. We assure the joint committee of our willingness, in conjunction with other relevant stakeholders such as the Department of Health, to take any measures necessary to further promote pupil safety.

Each board of management of a school, or the relevant education and training board in the case of such schools, is responsible as an employer for ensuring as far as reasonably practicable the safety and health at work of its employees, pupils and anyone else on school premises. In particular, each school is required under section 20 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 to have a school safety statement. These statements are intended to ensure each board of management has the appropriate procedures in place to safeguard safety and health at school level. These include procedures in relation to first aid, accidents and dangerous occurrences and instruction, training and supervision.

The Department of Education and Skills and the Health and Safety Authority have co-operated to produce guidance to assist the boards of management of primary and post-primary schools in developing their safety statements. One of the key steps in this process is an assessment of the potential risks to safety and health within schools. When these risks have been identified and assessed, boards of management are expected to reflect in their safety statements the means by which such risks will be eliminated or prevented as far as possible. Safety statements should be regularly reviewed by boards of management to ensure they address any new risks identified at school level. We believe the structures in place at school level, through the safety statement process, are sufficiently flexible to allow schools to respond positively to any new pupil safety and health challenges they are made aware of.

The Department of Education and Skills is actively contributing to the Healthy Ireland agenda, which is being led by the Department of Health. To this end, we support a number of programmes and initiatives to promote physical activity and contribute to tackling the growing problem of obesity. As well as the physical education programme in primary and post-primary schools, the Department of Education and Skills also promotes the active school flag and active schools week, as well as a number of innovative pilot initiatives such as the Points for Life project, which focuses on improving the physical literacy of pupils. We are also centrally involved in the development of the national physical activity plan, which has been mentioned and is being led by the Departments of Health and Transport, Tourism and Sport.

The latest data, which were collated from schools through a life skills survey published by the Department of Education and Skills in January 2014, indicate that schools are very active in supporting extra-curricular activities among their students. These data indicate that 81% of primary and 96% of post-primary schools promote physical activities outside the school day. This encompasses a range of pursuits, including Gaelic games, soccer, rugby, athletics, swimming, hockey and horse riding. According to the same survey, 98% of primary and 86% of post-primary schools that responded to the survey promote physical activity during break-times. It is clear, therefore, that schools are playing an important role in the overall Healthy Ireland agenda. As we develop guidance for schools on the topic of concussion, the Departments of Education and Skills and Health are conscious of the need to ensure such guidance does not discourage schools from continuing to promote physical activity among their students.

The Department views the issue of concussion in sport or otherwise very seriously. The potential dangers are clearly illustrated by the tragic case of Benjamin Robinson. Following an initial approach to the Department from Benjamin’s father, Peter, officials spoke with him via teleconference in January 2014. Mr. Robinson outlined the progress being made at that time in raising awareness of concussion-related injuries in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Following that meeting, the information provided by Mr. Robinson was circulated by the Department of Education and Skills to the Physical Education Association of Ireland and the well-being team of the Professional Development Service for Teachers. Such information will enhance the ability of physical education teachers to deal with suspected incidences of concussion. Officials from the Department of Education and Skills made contact with their counterparts in the Northern Ireland Department of Education. The Northern Ireland officials agreed to share the work they were undertaking in this area, which subsequently formed the basis of the "Recognise and Remove" leaflet that was circulated to all school boards and other relevant bodies in Northern Ireland in May 2014. Mr. Peter Robinson's concerns were also raised by Mr. Seánie McGrath with the members of the national physical activity plan at a working group meeting on 12 February 2014.

The Department of Health made it clear at that time that it was concerned about this issue and was interested in promoting awareness of the signs and symptoms of concussion. Both Departments agreed to ascertain whether organisations providing information on concussion were interested in collaborating on an awareness raising campaign for schools. Such organisations include a number of major sporting bodies - many of them, including the IRFU, the GAA and the Turf Club, were mentioned earlier - and Acquired Brain Injury Ireland. Contact was made with the medical representatives of each of these organisations and a meeting was arranged in the Department of Health in July 2014. This meeting was attended by representatives of Acquired Brain Injury Ireland, the IRFU, the GAA, the FAI, the Turf Club and both Departments.

There was broad consensus among those present at the meeting about the seriousness of the issue of concussion. It was agreed to draft a concussion awareness leaflet for discussion among the group, with clear and concise messages to support everyone providing and participating in sport or physical activity in schools and elsewhere. There was broad agreement on the type of issues that would need to be covered in such a leaflet, including material on the sports concussion assessment tool, links to the resources produced by various sports national governing bodies and Acquired Brain Injury Ireland and references to the consensus statement on concussion in sport that was produced at Zurich in November 2012. While there is broad agreement on the main principles that should inform the leaflet for schools, some additional work is necessary. As this is primarily a medical rather than a pedagogical issue, we would defer to the expertise of the relevant health experts in the Department of Health, the national sports governing bodies and Acquired Brain Injury Ireland in drawing up the final content of the leaflet. We will be more than happy to advise on any education-related issues that arise in the course of drafting the leaflet. We envisage our primary role to be to circulate the guidance to schools as part of a communications strategy.

I will conclude by assuring the joint committee of our willingness to raise awareness of this important issue in schools. We will continue to co-operate with the Department of Health and other relevant health experts to ensure appropriate advice issues to schools. I would be happy to respond to any questions the members of the committee might have.