Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise a couple of points before I call on other members. Senator Mullen made a point about keeping matters simple. I have had many conversations with school teachers and principals about keeping it simple because much of this can go over the heads of both parents and teachers. Will our guests comment on giving parents the skill set to identify school bullies and where their child may not be doing as well as he or she should be?

There are a number of forms of bullying, such as from pupil to pupil, teacher to teacher, teacher to pupil, and pupil to teacher. Will our guests comment on that? There are isolated incidents where teachers bully pupils, and others where pupils know a teacher is bullying another teacher and feel that because the teacher is doing it, it is okay and they can do it too. In recent days, the US election took place. We have seen some of the tweets that have been posted and the President of the United States, Donald Trump, has been sending out unbelievable tweets. It is almost the case that if world leaders do it, anyone can do it. I would be interested in hearing our guests' points of view on that.

Deputy Jim O'Callaghan asked whether social media platforms are doing enough and Dr. Milosevic replied they are doing what they can. Will she comment on that? I believe that they are not doing nearly enough. Some are very good but others are not so good. Will Dr. Milosevic comment on which are good and which are not? Social media platforms include Snapchat, Facebook, TikTok and many others.

Senator Mullen referred to the age groups of people on social media. In some instances, there are children as young as seven and eight years of age on Snapchat. As we know, there have been instances where naked pictures have been sent around on Snapchat. If that is happening at the age of seven or eight, one can imagine what they will be doing when they are 13, 14 or 16 years old.

Dr. Keating spoke about student councils. Is there evidence that if there is a very good student council in primary or secondary school, there tends not to be as much bullying in the school, whether online, physical or mental?

As for teacher training, the Minister for Education will appear before the committee next week or the week after that. Is there something we should pick up on to ensure teachers are educated to tackle this issue? If our guests believe there are teachers who have not been trained in educating pupils on the matter, is there something we can follow up on?

The Department action plan on bullying was published in 2013. I would like the witnesses to comment on whether there is a need to update the plan considering how bullying in schools has developed over the years.

The other point I want to raise is the reporting of bullying in schools through the inspectorate. Has evidence been gathered and shared with other schools? For example, a school in Donegal could pick up on what is being done by a school in Wexford. Are incidents that are reported inputted centrally in order to educate other teachers on what is happening so they can pick up on an incident that might have happened in a school?