Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 1 June 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills

School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. Damian White:

I will go first again. I acknowledge the Deputy's final point on racism. It is an area in respect of which I have come out quite strongly in a few public forums. We do not just need to have a racism policy, we need to have anti-racism policies. When we look at what is happening in the world and what has happened over the past 18 months, two years or five years, there has been an increase in racist attacks and crimes across the world. As a country, we should be, and can be, an exemplar in this area if each school has an anti-racism policy which is a stand-alone policy. We have around six key policies. The issue of racism comes under the scope of bullying and some other policies. There should be a stand-alone policy. I am firmly convinced of that. It would go a long way, particularly where children help to develop the policy within schools, to make racism something that is completely unacceptable and that people do not even understand in the next generation. That is my sincere hope in respect of the issue of racism.