Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The child protection guidelines are issued to all schools, and all boards of management are obliged to implement them. We have introduced training for school boards of management and teachers, so all the parties involved in schools are well aware of their duties and obligations in this regard. From information previously received, it would appear that there are some geographical areas where groups of parents have gone against the Stay Safe programme. Perhaps those parents have moved on and their children may now be in secondary school. I want to identify the issues involved and whether there is a major issue that needs to be addressed in the programme. I do not believe there is but people may be identifying one. The absence of real information is such that it makes the matter difficult for us to deal with.

We had a figure based on some sort of quantitative survey to which there was less than a 50% response. On that basis, it is hard to work out how many schools are implementing the programme. The CPS reckons that approximately 95% of schools are running the programme. It is intended that the survey will be carried out quickly and that responses will come back through the education centres so they can be followed up locally to obtain real information. Unless there is a very good reason why the programme should not be implemented in full, as soon as I receive the survey results I will be quite prepared to make the programme mandatory. Due to the nature of the programme and because there is an opt out clause, I would like to see a situation where it is offered in schools and where every child has the protection and benefit of that programme with the support of their parents and teachers.

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