Ms Doreen McMorris:

I will address those. The report shows quite a few findings that are of concern in regard to bullying.

Perhaps the most striking one is the very high proportion of parents who indicate that they do not know whether they are happy with how schools deal with bullying. That is to a level of 25%at both primary and post-primary level. We find out about bullying when we go into schools in a number of ways. We obviously use questionnaires but we also raise issues around bullying at meetings and in the course of the inspection activity while inspectors are in the school. Building on what is in the report that covered the period to 2012, which members have, we have made some changes to the questionnaire. Since January of this year we have focused the questions around bullying in a clearer way so that in future inspections we will get even better information on how parents and students consider the school to be performing on bullying and discipline and how safe students are in school.

Members will be aware that within the last year the Minister has implemented new procedures for schools in terms of anti-bullying policies. The requirements for schools in that regard will be part of our inspection processes as we move forward. Schools are expected to have procedures in place by the end of this term that are similar to the child protection policy. This whole area of bullying is one around which none of us can be in any way complacent. The TIMMS survey does show that Ireland has a lower incidence of bullying than comparable countries. That is something to bear in mind when we look at the issues around bullying in schools.