Dr. Niall Muldoon:

I thank the Deputy. The anti-bullying procedures came into place and they were the first ones ever in place for the Department of Education. Coincidentally, our office carried out a big consultation with children just prior to that. We chatted to over 300 children on what they thought about bullying and what they wanted. They were always clear that they wanted the relationship between the bully and the victim to be worked on. They did not call it restorative justice but that is the concept the children had, as well as and compassion for the other person, because they know they have to meet that child in the street again and unless the child is fixed and worked on, there is no point doing it. A lot of that stuff fed into the policy procedures the Department made up. It is past time to revisit it. There are many things changing in our lives. Smart technology alone has changed everything completely and schools and the way they educate has changed. That is hugely important.

The vast information mine and the data that is out there from every school around bullying could be phenomenally useful for us as we look for evidence-based progress. There are fabulous schools out there doing a brilliant job on bullying, changing the culture, increasing self-esteem and encouraging diversity. Encouraging diversity and children's rights in a school eliminates many opportunities and reasons for bullying. We could gain a lot of information from individual schools.

On the Youth Mental Health Pathfinder Project, it essentially means officers from the Departments of Education, Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and Health would work in the same office to streamline the process of sending a child for mental health support. If a teacher says he or she needs a child to be referred, it goes through the GP, the teacher is kept in the loop and the education system pays for some degree of mental health support. That reduces the input from the Department of Health. All of those things become streamlined and much easier. It has been budgeted for four or five years in a row but has never happened because they cannot determine who will take the final budget Vote and which Department has the final responsibility. That is a cop-out that is causing a lot of harm and hurt for our children.

If the three Departments are going to work together there needs to be a joint budget and some way to streamline the process. That is the essence of changing the way we think about this and putting the child at the centre of our system. It is being promoted as a way to show the reactiveness and positive change taking place in the Civil Service and we need that to happen as soon as possible.