Dr. P?draig MacNeela:

That is why we are emphasising the whole-school approach. We have considerable experience in the school environment. Our approach has been to work first of all with higher education, where we have established this methodology of conducting research to understand what is going on in that environment, then designing resources, workshops interactive elements and so on that people will respond to, and testing and evaluating those. That is an important component of safety that takes place so that the direct experience of young people can be quality assured, but it is not enough. That is why we are here today, advocating for a whole school approach. We have seen the publication of the anti-bullying strategy and action plan this year. If we could have that for this area, it would be a game-changer.

We need to ensure, for example, that policies that schools have in place are actually up to speed. We often talk in the university context about trauma-informed processes and policies. We struggle with those. They are hard to achieve in practice. I can only imagine that there is a big gulf in the post-primary area. When we do this programming, it inevitably raises issues with people about realising and being able to put a name on something that happened to them. It is happening in a classroom context. We continually have debates in the university sector about what happens if people are back in the same classroom with another person who they feel harassed them. This is happening daily in schools. Schools are not equipped to deal with that type of issue.

Going back to the idea of passionate teachers, they need to be working in a compassionate system that will empower them to deliver the kinds of changes that we need to see. I know Ms McGrath has been forging ahead with further education. We might think of schools as somewhere along the path of this year. Over the past two years, we were asked by the Department of Justice to work with further education, where new ground is broken all the time. What are some of the steps that Ms McGrath would take to get into the system and raise awareness?