Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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The past couple of weeks during which we have been examining this issue have been fascinating but upsetting and very worrying. There is no doubt but that the impact of bullying on so many families and individuals, children and adults, can be really profound. It is appropriate that we reflect here that a lot of discussion has concerned the bullying of children and rightly so, but we also need to remember that schools are workplaces and employers have a responsibility to support their staff when instances of bullying emerge and protect them from bullying. While schools and school staff, including SNAs, have a very significant role to play, we cannot expect our schools and our teachers to solve all the problems relating to this issue. It is vital that schools have access to relevant professionals such as psychologists when they are needed.

I will not get the response from all four witnesses in the limited time available to me so I might come back to the INTO at the end if I get in again. My first question is for Mr. Ryan. Regarding the submission from the ISSU, there is a fair bit of comment on the reform of relationships and sexuality education, RSE, which has been in the news a lot to the effect that it is outdated and inconsistent. Does Mr. Ryan have any views on how it can be improved? Is it his experience that it in some way contributes to the "othering" of students or people feeling excluded?

The ASTI and the TUI have raised very interesting points as proposals we can address. Could we get further comment from the witnesses from both unions? HSCLOs play such an important role in ensuring that not every crisis in a school ends up on the principal's desk. They can address some of these issues and build relationships. Could the witnesses comment on the benefits of that? The proposal that there be a liaison officer within the major social media platforms to work with schools is very interesting because these issues constantly evolve. Obviously, we must all ensure that we are as up to date as possible but it is a really interesting proposal and I would appreciate some elaboration on it.