Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael)
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I thank Mr. Ryan for his contribution. He mentioned parents. I was curious about that as I feel it is more a matter for schools. How do we upskill parents and get them more involved? I have a couple of ideas but I would like to hear Mr. Ryan's views.

I am a bit surprised regarding teachers' unions. Over the past number of weeks with the contributions to the debate on bullying we have heard, what has emerged is how important the school environment is. Not one of the groups here has tackled that. I was also surprised by Mr. Duffy's statistics and the optimism he indicated when it comes to bullying when everything we have heard over the past year has shown that over one in three students have suffered from bullying.

Perhaps cyberbullying was not included in the statistics. I am very surprised by them.

I understand that teachers also suffer from bullying but the focus here is on children who take their own lives due to bullying. In the past few months, the committee has heard about terrible cases of severe bullying.

Mr. O'Sullivan from the INTO indicated there is no training for teachers in primary and post-primary schools. In that regard, a number of groups have not mentioned, including Dublin City University's anti-bullying centre, the FUSE programme, which has been rolled out, and SOAR, which does early intervention in transition year. Why was training not part of the presentations? How important is it? There is training available. The tacklebullying,ieand webwise.iewebsites are available and there is information available to teachers and parents. I am a little annoyed to be honest.

I ask each of the representatives from the teaching unions to give an example of a positive school environment. I understand we need more training for career guidance. There has been investment in NEPS. What is a positive school environment versus one that does not embrace a culture of engaging with bullying, not just an anti-bullying policy?