Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

When we take together the work being done by the Department, the NEWB, the NCTE, the leadership development and the curriculum, we could say it is a national strategy. However, it must be implemented at a local school level through all the elements involved and through social, personal and health education.

We can deal with the issue in two ways. We can deal with the bully and, more particularly, with the victim. We must enable victims to have the skills to cope and ensure they do not tolerate bullying behaviour. I am equally conscious that at school level children should feel that if they make a complaint, it will be dealt with and teachers will follow up on it.

With regard to the findings of the survey with regard to homophobic bullying, all bullying is wrong. School policies should be careful to include the issue of homophobic bullying. We are conscious of bullying because of race, size, background, abilities and colour, but should be equally conscious of bullying on account of sexual orientation. All types of bullying must be stamped out in the school context.

There was a time when bullying was more obvious because it was either verbal or physical and therefore it was more easily identified by a teacher. Now, it is more sinister. Young people spend too much time in isolation communicating with others through the Internet, websites and text messaging, without any personal communication. It is much more difficult to tackle bullying in this situation. The website I launched on behalf of the NCTE, www.webwise.ie, is a useful aid for everybody in recognising and dealing with issues concerned with Internet safety.

All these elements will form part of the guidelines being produced by the NEWB and will, consequently, feed into the work of the Department.

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