Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I only have one question for our witnesses. It relates to education. Does either the Office of Internet Safety or CyberSafeIreland have a relationship with, for instance, the Irish Primary Principals Network? A moment ago, Ms Curley reference the willingness of primary teachers and whether they felt they had sufficient information and wherewithal to engage in a teaching programme. Aside from training and continuous professional development for those individual teachers who feel they have a deficiency in that very narrow field, where do the principals come in on this issue? Ultimately, they manage the schools and it is their responsibility to ensure that the curriculum and any additional elements are being implemented within the four walls of their schools. I would have thought that it might be an avenue for discussion with both primary and secondary school teaching networks.

The other avenue, which should be considered automatically, is the unions, because virtually every practitioner in the field of education is unionised. From my few months as Chairman of this committee, I know that the trade union movement is heavily involved in the committee's area. It does some really good work. It would certainly be of benefit to try to tap into those organisations and bodies because they appear, at least from my brief, superficial reading, to have something to bring to the table.

I compliment Deputy Sherlock. He is right in that it is necessary for somebody to map the entirety of what the child services and child protection community is doing in the State. While duplication is not unusual, in this instance I would imagine that all the bodies, including An Garda Síochána, Tusla and others, are attempting to do the exact same thing on the cyber side. There may be distinct roles in certain aspects on the criminality side, the preventative side and the education side, but ultimately determining who is doing what and why, and how we can better support them, perhaps through the appointment of a digital commissioner or a single point of authority within the entirety of the sector and all Government Departments, is of critical importance. My question was whether Ms Leahy, Ms Cooney or Dr. Brennan had a view on building relationships with principals and unions.