Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their insight and their expertise. They do wonderful work and it is appreciated and valued. My apologies, I had to come off the call for a short period to go to another meeting, but I feel I have a very good sense of this and I have, of course, read the submissions.

I have a few general questions, and a lot of that is based on some of the findings we have heard and received from other witnesses in regard to this very important issue. I will go into them quickly and put them all together, and the witnesses can then respond.

We have heard that the 2003 anti-bullying policy needs to be completely updated. An interesting comment was made at last week's meeting that we need to change the language around that, and instead of saying "anti-bullying", we need to couch it in very positive and proactive terms. I thought that was a very good point and I would be interested to hear the witnesses’ views.

It would seem that a problem with that policy is that it is more or less saying to schools they need to have a policy but is not very clear what those policies should be. I had not realised until this meeting that only 51% of schools had actually complied. I am quite surprised to hear that.

There were differing views as to whether there should be a database in regard to school bullying incidents and the type of incidents, and whether tracking these incidents and how they are dealt with should be done on a national basis. I would be interested to hear the witnesses’ views.

With regard to the question of a roadmap, it has been very clear from the witnesses we have heard that we need to have a very clear roadmap. There seem to be a lot of very good tools that are being used in different schools but it is a case of never the twain shall meet. Many very good practices are being carried out and, for example, the ETB schools have a very specific policy. A number of schools are also doing restorative practice. I have spoken to a few principals about that and it certainly seems to be excellent in terms of dealing with the perpetrators, as well as the victims, and, of course, the bystanders.

I want to mention three other areas. In the context of appointing an online safety commissioner, Senator Mullen spoke about cyberbullying. There is certainly a belief that an online safety commissioner would play a very important role in that area.

Particularly since Covid, there has been a bigger conversation about education, what the importance of education is and a possible steer away from having just academic learning towards having a well-rounded, holistic young person at the end of that, who is enabled to have a broader lifestyle and broader life skills. It even goes back to what Professor O'Higgins Norman was saying about being kind, just taking that moment to think about being kind and showing respect.

Finally, what is the role of the parent in collaboration with the school in dealing with bullying activity?