Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the guests here today. It has come up at previous meetings, and through TUI research, that Irish children are less likely to experience bullying. In fact it is below the OECD average. That is positive. I was interested by a statement at a previous committee meeting that bullying has actually halved in the last 20 years, which is welcome. What we are dealing with is where bullying occurs outside of the school, mainly online through social media use. That has been flagged consistently. It is a problem and schools have to deal with a problem that did not start in the school but outside it on social media platforms.

I am interested to hear views on guidance counsellors. I have strongly advocated for the guidance counsellor posts to be restored to schools to the levels we had before the recession. There were a lot of cuts at the time of the recession and the number of posts has never been restored to the same level in second level schools. Do the witnesses feel that guidance counsellors would have a robust role to play in tacking any bullying that emerges in schools? My view is they have a very significant role to play in second level schools. The restoration of these posts is something I have sought for a long time.