Eileen Flynn (Independent)
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I thank the Chairman. I thank the witnesses for presenting to us today and for taking time out from their busy schedules to discuss this really important issue. I will not repeat what other members have said. I will keep it really short. I was really struck by what Professor O'Higgins Norman said about image and how research has shown a lot of children get bullied because of image. Is that because of the colour of a child's skin, for example? A lot of time people would look and say a child is a member of the Traveller community or that he or she is poor because he or she does not have the top-class runners other children in the class have. Thus I am wondering about the whole area of image and what was spoken about there.

Has there been any research around bullying done on the grounds of a child's ethnicity, culture or race? It is a similar question. I refer to research on cultural or racial discrimination with the purpose of identifying whether or not this type of bullying has different effects and impacts than personal bullying. While it is not nice to speak about, unfortunately this bullying can be carried out by teachers. It is absolutely necessary we develop studies on bullying. Will the witnesses speak to the committee about the research to date on racial bullying? It is not about blaming teachers, or anything of the sort, but unfortunately bullying can come from the adults in the room as well as the children there.

Again, I would be interested in hearing more around what was said about image. Is it the child with the cheap runners on his or her feet? Is it the trans child with short hair? That question can be for any of the witnesses. I thank them all so much for presenting to us today.