Mr. Paul C. Dwyer:

I do not think that they are resourcing the measure adequately. They must provide specialist resources to specialist groups. For example, teachers could have a hotline to the social media companies in order to state their evaluation of a situation. Perhaps they could provide specific training to teachers who can access a hotline. Teachers could ask the companies to accept their word that bullying is occurring and must be stopped.

Cyberbullying is a viral epidemic. Members may think that we have a problem now but in two years time it will be a worse epidemic in schools with the arrival of iPads, smartphones and all of the other tech equipment. Schools are only worried whether the devices will get damaged and not that children will bring in a weapon to school than can take pictures of kids in showers, share the images within seconds and is propagated around the world. We need to pay more than lip service to the problem and put resources and specialist courses in place. All of the facilities exist from a technology and education point of view and schools should not be afraid to build a fence around the hazard. Schools should say that there is a hazard but children and adults can still enjoy the benefits of the Internet while making it safer by following certain procedures and adopt a responsible method for reporting instances. My view is that cyberbullying cases should not end up on the desk of a garda all of the time. Until it is a full crime, if that is the right phrase to use, then schools should try to deal with instances themselves from a certain internal governance point of view within the industry. If an offence is committed and laws are broken then a Garda unit should deal with it.