Mr. John Curtis:

An online safety commissioner into which schools would also have some kind of direct line would be very important. The ombudsman made a point about the pathfinder project, in which it was engaged with the Departments with responsibility for children, health and education, to have some kind of support system for schools in that space. That exemplifies, perhaps, the outside support that schools might need. We will be able to deal with most issues internally.

The Deputy made a very valid and interesting point about online bullying and things that happen late at night. This is the frustration we have. Any issue that pertains to the well-being of a child should and will be dealt with in school as best as possible. We find, however, that some of these cases are so difficult that we scratch our heads in wondering what to do when, for instance, an online comment is made at 2 o'clock in the morning during the middle of the summer holidays. Some things are very difficult.

Ms O'Dwyer made a comment about training and she is correct. I am old enough to have been around when the social, personal and health education, SPHE, and original relationships and sexuality education, RSE, guidelines came in. There was a huge investment in training at the time. The problem now, however, is that because of cutbacks, perhaps we have taken our eye off the ball. We are not training teachers adequately in dealing with some of these issues. We need to look at that.

It is difficult for us at school level as well. We want to have the best people in our school engaging in these issues with our students and pupils. Sometimes, it is a battle to get people to engage. They just do not feel they have the capacity to do it. We need, therefore, to train and keep the awareness up there. We need to realise that some of these cases are almost unsolvable.

I scratch my head on many occasions not knowing how to deal with an issue around bullying. I was a principal for more than 20 years. Of all the issues I have dealt with in school, those relating to bullying or perceived bullying behaviour, or problems with relationships between pupils, are the most difficult. I never stayed awake at night worrying about academic results. I often stayed awake at night worrying about problems regarding the relationships between pupils.