Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate, and I commend Sinn Féin for putting this Bill on the agenda. It is important to speak about and address bullying and the victims of bullying at every opportunity and, indeed, do anything possible to protect the victims of bullying. Bullying can have severe consequences for a victim's confidence and later life and sometimes can result in tragedy, as Deputy Neville said.

While I acknowledge the motive behind the Bill, I have concerns about the implications of putting it in legislation. Boards of management are already obliged to have child protection and anti-bullying policies, procedures and action plans in place in schools. I have been a chairperson of a board of management for the last five years and I see the challenges for volunteers in giving their time to deal with the demands on them as community representatives, parents' representatives or patrons' representatives on boards of management. We must be careful about imposing statutory obligations on volunteers serving in that capacity. I support the concept of training supports. The action plan which the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, is due to announce tomorrow should go a long way towards addressing this complex problem.

I agree with other Members that this is not just about bullying in schools, but also bullying outside schools, before and after school and during break time. School is already a relatively controlled environment where students come together. I believe the key to this issue is parental and societal responsibility to educate children that bullying is not acceptable and that regardless of whether they are the bully or the victim, if they see it happening they must act. That is where the damage is done. We must also tackle cyberbullying. It is a huge challenge for society. It happens quietly and unknown to parents and teachers. It is the area which must be tackled in a respectful manner.

I welcome the fact that the Minister will launch the action plan tomorrow. He has consulted widely with all stakeholders and I believe it will go a long way towards assisting those in authority in schools, homes and society. A comprehensive response is required to deal with this complex problem, but essentially it will boil down to a non-acceptance of bullying in any form.

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