Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and committee members for their invitation to attend. I will not make any quips about waiting all day for a bus because in this case it is absolutely justified to have four buses come along at once. In the submission that has been circulated I point out that one of the things that my Department is increasingly emphasising is well-being within the whole education system. In the policy being rolled out in schools well-being is defined in the context of young citizens as discerning, respectful, resilient, connected, confident, positive and imaginative, which are all things that we want for our children. The normal concerns that any parent would have about their children meeting strangers, being bullied, getting in with the wrong crowd or getting involved in harmful activities are all turbo charged by the power of new technologies and the Internet. While digital technology brings phenomenal benefits in education it also gives rise to risks to which we must be very alert. It is a very fast-moving area, as Deputy Flanagan has said, and we must always be vigilant and review our policies regularly.

In general terms, schools have independent boards which are responsible for ensuring the safe use of digital technology in schools. It is up to school boards and management to have the appropriate policies in place. That said, we do not leave them adrift on an ocean but provide them with a lot of support. As is outlined in my written submission, support is provided in the areas of formal curriculum content and the continuous professional development of teachers. Very innovative material is provided by webwise.ie, representatives of which are here today. This material is delivered to students, parents and teachers. Network services are provided to support security and filtering. We also provide strong policy content and guidance in areas like well being, digital technologies and anti-bullying strategies.

Members will be familiar with recent curriculum changes, including the new well-being programme which is being rolled out at junior cycle level. This programme integrates the social, personal and health education, SPHE, curriculum with the political and civil education curriculum.

It is designed to ensure people are strong in themselves but also respectful of others. Much of the context of that is to give people the tools to manage their own interaction either with technology or with others. The junior cycle now provides for short courses allowing young people to dip into things like digital media literacy which gives them an exposure if they choose. The NCCA continually reviews the curriculum with a view to improving it and making it more relevant. There is considerable activity in ensuring the curriculum is attuned to students' needs.

We have support for teachers in technology in well-being and specific support through Webwise. I have listed some of the instruments they have in the field. One of them, Be in Ctrl, was launched relatively recently. It is a good example. The Garda supported the programme and was involved in putting it together. We had 80 student ambassadors who went back to the schools to popularise it and reinterpret the advice into ways that it would be better absorbed and acted upon in their schools and taking initiatives in schools. They are all in relevant areas. They include Be in Ctrl, acceptable usage policy, Think B4U Click, advice for parents about sexting and so on. They are all very relevant to the topic we are discussing.

Obviously we have an action plan for bullying. Schools must have an anti-bullying policy. There has to be an acceptable usage policy in schools setting out the dos and don'ts of how technology should be used and the consequences of abuses of that.

I am not saying we are perfect by any means, but I think we have the ingredients to react in an evolving way to the changes that are sought by the committee or by colleagues. I welcome the bringing together of the various strands because we cannot work in a silo without knowledge of the source of the criminal threats and where the technology is heading. We are very keen to be part of this cross-Government approach.