Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests. Their contributions have been very valuable. Combined with what we heard last week from psychotherapists, clinical psychologists and psychiatrists from many different groups, the key issues that came across were the school environment, how important it is schools engage with instances of bullying as well as, and Ms Connolly might have mentioned this, how this impacts not just the children who endure bullying but also the perpetrators and bystanders. We heard a statistic last week on the high number of children who were presenting. It was not just the victims of bullying. This also impacts on people who are doing the bullying and on bystanders.

It was a very impressive presentation from Mr. Ben Holmes of Webwise. It is great to have such a young man here to speak to us, so I thank him. I am sure Bunclody in Wexford is proud to have him here. A few of my family are in that area. My question for him is about mediation skills, particularly what type of mediation. This was raised with me by another parent. Could there be training in mediation skills for teachers? Teachers have a heavy load, but perhaps there is some type of intervention that might be helpful. He also said the peer-to-peer aspect is very important. What might an ideal school managing an instance of bullying well might look like?

I thank Ms Connolly for her presentation on behalf of Barnardos. It is amazing that it has 40 centres. The work Barnardos does is phenomenal. I am very interested in the roots of the empathy programme. I had never heard of it, and it is wonderful. It shows the importance of us speaking about it. I am aware of Webwise.ie and tacklebullying.ie and the programmes that are available. I am curious about how Barnardos got the mother and the child engaged and how this process started. How can schools register for something like this? How do they engage with Barnardos? It is the practical aspect.

I thank Mr. O'Connor from Inclusion Ireland. I work closely with the Minister of State at the Department of Education, Deputy Madigan. I know there is examination of the school inclusion model, the pilot that is being rolled out to schools in which there are additional speech and language supports. However, Mr. O'Connor pointed out that special needs are particularly impacted when it comes to bullying. Is there something within the school inclusion model that is being rolled out that could be considered as well with regard to bullying?

I also thank Ms Brady. She mentioned that more than 80% of teachers were surveyed, and 20% are not clear on exactly what steps to follow. Does this just point to further training or is it a case that schools run a mock incident of bullying and this is how it would be managed? Sometimes this role playing is very important.