Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle's office for affording me the opportunity to speak on this matter and I thank the Minster for coming into the House to address this issue. I am sure all Members would agree that cyberbullying is a major and increasing problem. We are mindful of the families of Ciara Pugsley and Erin Gallagher who reportedly died by suicide as a result of cyberbullying in the recent past.

I received responses to two parliamentary questions recently, one from the Minister's Department and one from the Department of Justice and Equality. The Minister's Department indicated that a working group is due to report by the end of November and, in fairness, it has been quite proactive in addressing bullying and is taking the issues in regard to cyberbullying quite seriously. Any fair-minded person would say that schools are not the only answer to tackling bullying. Children do not live in school, they live in communities. Parents and other members of the family have a huge role to play. If a parent is told their child may be involved in any sort of bullying it is very difficult for them to take that on board and they often assume their parenting skills are being brought into question but that is not the case. Bullying can happen to anybody and it can be carried out by anybody.

The response I received from Department of Justice and Equality seems to indicate there is a grey area relating to cyberbullying because we are not sure if cyberbullying can come under section 10 of the 1997 Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act and it has been referred to the Law Reform Commission. I suggest a cross-departmental group needs to be set up to discuss this issue in order to tackle it properly. It does not only come under the remit of the Department of Education and Skills or the remit of the Department of Justice and Equality.

The organisation SpunOut.ie believes such a cross-departmental group could potentially investigate a number of matters. It could investigate how schools could intervene in cases of cyberbullying, even if the bullying happens off-site. It could clarify if current legislation offers any remedy to victims such as barring or restraining orders as well as providing guidance to the Garda and schools on how to deal with cases of cyberbullying. Schools and members of An Garda Síochána need clarifications from the authorities that set out these guidelines. We need to examine establishing a team within the Garda who can track IP addresses through Internet service providers. The Department of Justice and Equality indicates that the Internet providers are quite proactive on this and work not only within the law but within the spirit of the law, but we need to nail that down. We need to examine how we can encourage schools to work with parents to remind them to monitor their child's Internet use and help their children if they are victims of cyberbullying and also to help their children if they believe they are engaging in bullying behaviour. Often a victim of bullying is the person who becomes a bully after that experience.

While the Minister's Department is doing great work and while the Department of Justice and Equality is mindful of the serious issue of cyberbullying, I request the Minister to consider the establishment of a cross-departmental group to properly tackle this issue. I would appreciate if he would respond to that request.

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