Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests and thank them for their rich insights. I was struck by what Mr. Mulconry said about people having shorter concentration spans these days. I wonder whether it means anything that we are only being allowed six minutes to concentrate our questions to our guests.

I was struck by Ms O'Dwyer's comments on the vicious circle of a child being bullied because of his or her mental health issues and that bullying then causing further mental health problems. Deputy Conway-Walsh and others have discussed measuring. Why are we having this conversation? Is it a part of ongoing good practice in how we look after our physical and mental health or, from the experience of Ms O'Dwyer and the others, do they have reason to believe that the situation is worse than it used to be? With all of the emphasis on positive mental health and the nurturing that is now part of school life compared with when I was at school, one would hope that the situation would be much better. To quote U2, "Is it getting better? Or do you feel the same?" Is it worse than it was ten or 20 years ago? I would be grateful for our guests' thoughts on that.

I will focus my next question on the Catholic school patronage and management sector. Is there much politics influencing this debate? We hear so much about sexual issues, to be blunt, when talking about bullying. This committee has had relatively little conversation about race or ethnic-based bullying or people being bullied on the basis of perceptions about their religions or religious practice. We have had some focus on disability-based bullying. All bullying is equally wrong, but are there issues? In the JMB's presentation, it focused on cyberbullying and homophobic and transphobic bullying, cyberbullying being a means of bullying that we all need to discuss. However, is there evidence to suggest that bullying around sexual identity issues is a much bigger problem than bullying based on, for example, rivalries between children or has it to do with the prevalence of groups that are active in these issues? Is there a disproportionate focus that might be subtracting from our need to concentrate on the essence of what is causing bullying?

Our society is now more liberal and an element in it is hostile to faith. Do children encounter bullying based on their faith or religious practice? Is there any evidence of that?

Do we need to focus more on resilience? Sometimes, I worry that we talk so much about this problem that we are putting children into a victim mode. Are we saying enough about the need to strengthen, encourage and cajole parents to be more active in their parenting and about the promotion of resilience in children so that they are less a target for bullying and better able to deal with it when it comes over the horizon?

I am sorry for asking so many questions.