Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill and the debate it has initiated. However, I do not intend to support the Bill no matter how well-intentioned it is. As a former student, teacher and principal I do not consider it to be the solution to the myriad challenges faced by schools in dealing with the problem.

Bullying is a culture that must be acknowledged, addressed and challenged at every available opportunity. The responsibility to ensure that this culture is exposed and acknowledged within a school community is manifold. Legislating to force responsibility for dealing with bullying onto school management is merely shifting the emphasis away from the primary educator, namely, parents. The duty for dealing with bullying spreads much further and wider within the school community and the home in order to address the underlying issues.

Bullying is a culture and for that reason I fear it will not submit to the charms of legislation. People’s tolerance of difference, or lack thereof, has always amazed me. There are myriad reasons why people perceive others as different. I read a story, as Gaeilge, many years ago about a young Irish girl who died of starvation on a sailing ship due to her absolute refusal to eat food that was given to her by a person with black skin. It is probably too easy to suggest that the young girl was racist. Bullying is a difficult and challenging issue and the responsibility for dealing with it must be spread much further and wider than is acknowledged in what is proposed in the Bill.

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