Professor Louise Crowley:

In terms of our reach, we currently have a transition year programme which is delivered to fifth-year students and sixth-year students if a school has the capacity. Our funding ran out at Easter this year, but we continue to do it. This is not my job, so to speak. I am a professor in the school of law. It is just Celine and I on the team and our vision is to adopt the programme for junior cycle. We were contacted by a teacher who asked us to do something for first-year students because they were very vulnerable. Students were getting requests for nude pictures and they did not know what to do. They wanted to fit in and the teacher was struggling to help the students. We are very aware that this training on how to identify problematic behaviour and learning how to respond to support each other is needed at the very latest from first year in secondary schools. If we can find funding, our vision is to adapt it. This can probably done for every year in secondary school. It is important that we speak to their lived reality. The programme for fourth-year students is not suitable for first-year students. Each cohort needs to be able to work out what their experiences are.

Regarding the reach, we are currently delivering a pilot supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media to schools, youth clubs and sporting organisations for 16- to 24-year-olds working the area of the night-time economy. We see beyond education into the areas where either young people are not in school or where they are in a club or sporting culture. It is important to tap into these areas to support them in ensuring that they are safe places. We are building up extensive research on the response to the training. This is making a really significant difference to young people's ability to recognise what is not okay because so much problematic behaviour has been normalised. They all get unwanted, unsolicited images sent to their phones and they think this is normal. I have had students tell me they were groped in a nightclub and they think it was normal. It is about them relearning what respect is. Once they know this, they can recognise problematic behaviour.

When they have the collective learning, they can support each other to reject such behaviour with their voice becoming strong again. We deliver training and orientation to 3,500 students and are working with all third level institutions. The appetite is significant and we have tremendous vision for where this can go with young people in second and third level but also beyond the school environment. It is all education. We want to reach them where they are at and ensure the training we deliver is appropriate. Our workshops are always bespoke. If we go to a rugby club, we reflect the lived experience of rugby players. The same applies if we visit a youth club. We work out our scenarios in advance to make sure the material is relevant. It is about that huge reach. Once you have that conversation happening and it spills out into clubs and families, people will feel safer in demanding better.