Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On the issue of the digital commissioner, I published legislation three weeks to establish the office of the digital commissioner and to address the issue of revenge pornography and the altering of images. It is the Harmful Communications and Digital Safety Bill, which I hope will progress through the Dáil.

I believe education is the key. I studied the Finnish model and I am sure the Chairman, as a former member of the education committee, would undertake an examination of various international models. Are there any international models the witnesses could envisage being implemented here? Online bullying starts at a very young age in primary school and the difference between the Scandinavian model and what we have implemented in recent years is that the model was put on a statutory footing in Scandinavia. Many of the initiatives we have implemented in this State have been on an ad hocbasis. It is up to individual schools to implement their own policies. I published legislation about two years ago to try to make that a statutory provision but, unfortunately, it was voted down. Do the witnesses have any opinions on whether legislation to deal with bullying in schools, and international best practices, should be put on a statutory footing?