Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is a subject I know quite a bit about because I worked on papers before. I published a paper with Dr. Stephen Minton and did a lot of work with Trinity College Dublin's anti-bullying centre going back years. My greatest frustration is that the subject keeps being analysed and talked about but there is a lack of mainstreaming or implementation of models of very good practice. I was glad to hear Dr. Mazzone speak of the necessary training and supports. It is probably more than ten years since we developed a whole-community approach to anti-bullying, which involved school transport, efforts outside and inside school and training for teachers that was approved by the Educational Research Centre in Drumcondra. All of that was done but the resources to implement and mainstream it were not forthcoming. How can we all work together to stop talking about the issue? It is almost like there is an industry around it - I sometimes feel the same about mental health - but we do not actually get to take action. Young people's lives are being destroyed while we analyse all this. All of us on the committee, the Government, academics and everyone else have a responsibility to ensure there is implementation and resources for schools.

They do not have the resources - let us face it. They are just trying to cope with what they can do. There are the most fantastic anti-bullying policies, but there will be schools that say bullying does not happen in their school, which always worries me because bullying behaviour can happen anywhere there are human beings. We have to recognise and face up to that. How do we better work together in order that the resources are in place, that the audit tool is in place and accepted and that there are resources for continuous evaluation of what is happening? I mean a 360° evaluation whereby the students and the young people are involved as well as the bus drivers, the parents, the GAA team and everybody else. I know that was a bit long-winded but I am passionate about this subject because I have seen too many lives destroyed because bullying behaviour was not addressed.