Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I assure the Deputy that we will give this matter the urgency it requires. However, I do not want to enact laws that do not address the problem and which, in the end, just appear decorative. It is important that where Internet service providers can identify and prevent online bullying, they should engage and take whatever action is required. It is also important to deal with this from the human dimension and not simply the legal one. We should not imagine that by enacting a law this will all go away because this matter concerns human conduct. Some of those who bully online have themselves been victims of bullying, while others simply see targeting people as entertainment.

All Members can recall their own school days, when it was rare for a school to exist that did not have someone who was identified as the school bully. Unfortunately, the tragic reality is that targeting and bullying has even translated itself into public discourse in a whole range of areas and it is an interesting question as to what example that gives to young people and what impact it has on them.

All that said, it is terribly important to recognise that as a society in general, we wish to see young people benefit from the amazing new technologies that exist. New technology has had an overwhelmingly positive impact but we must ensure its use as a medium to cause distress to individuals, put them under pressure, make their lives extraordinarily difficult or contribute in any way to making a young person or adult take his or her own life is dealt with and addressed. However, one should not pretend these issues can be dealt with simply by the passing of a law.

I particularly thank the Deputy for raising this issue today, thereby giving Members an opportunity to touch on it, because that is all they are doing. I share the Deputy's view that interventions in this area by both the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Fitzgerald, and the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, are very important and welcome. The Government will work collegially to address the issue. On a personal level, I am convinced that a lot more must be done within the schools. The focus to an extent has been on what one does when one receives a report of bullying. I want to see a lot more being done to prevent bullying from taking place in the first place. A lot more should be done to ensure that young people understand fully or are taught to understand the consequences of thoughtless actions they may take, which they may simply perceive as being amusing or as a way of filling time, because people amusing themselves sometimes do enormous damage to those individuals who are the butt of their amusement.

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