Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party)
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I thank all of our guests. I enjoyed listening to their perspectives, as always. I will first address the issue of RSE, on which I fundamentally disagree with Senator Mullen. People need to see their families and their lives reflected in the kind of education they get and they need to feel comfortable in their own skin to be resilient and show compassion and empathy for others. That is essential. I welcome any comments in that regard because a point that has not been addressed is that of empathy and how linked it is to whether people go on to bully. Having empathy means you have to see other people and respect them equally. Mr. Ryan may have some perspectives on that.

One of the issues is the patronage system we have. It means people do not always have a choice and their religion or lack of religion is not always reflected in the school they attend. That means we need a broader kind of education in terms of sex education and relationship education that caters for everybody across all schools. Alternatively, we need to dismantle the patronage system, or do both. In the immediate term, RSE certainly needs to be brought in in a way that reflects the whole of society in every school.

On the bystander point that was raised, and particularly in the context of the point of view of teachers and young people, it was brought up at the committee meeting before last that the issue of the bystander can be quite challenging. It is difficult to put people in the position of always having to be the ones to take action. Are we putting too much on young people to try to sort out problems when the problems are structural? I have not heard anything from the teachers' unions in particular around whether there are structures within education that could change and could be easier to implement before it gets to the point where there may be a need to call in other people. I refer to structures with which teachers would feel comfortable, such as mentoring and having the student voice involved in coming up with the decisions around how schools function for everybody while showing equal respect for adults and young people.