Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As a former Sinn Féin spokesperson on education, I have met families throughout the country who were affected by this issue. In my own constituency, and from my own experience, I know of the difficulties many children face at school.

A disappointing aspect of the debate is that we are being told, once again, that our proposals are not practical, that guidelines are in the pipeline or that something will happen in the next six months. I do not believe that. We know that three girls committed suicide in the past six months as a result of bullying.

A number of years ago, a family came to me and asked me for help for their child. The mother of the family had been going through the boy's socks and underwear and came across a suicide letter in which he outlined the bullying he was suffering. The family had gone to the school on four previous occasions to talk about the bullying the boy was being subjected to, with no satisfaction. Other people got involved and the family moved out of the area because of what was going on in their child's life. That is just one example of what is going on.

The children being bullied can be vulnerable or potentially vulnerable. Sometimes they are not vulnerable but are made vulnerable by what is going on in their school. Some schools have the issue off to a T. They respond to bullying in kind and have guidelines and ways of dealing with it. Some, however, do not have guidelines. There is no consistency. Of five schools in an area, each one will approach the problem differently. We need consistency.

We need to wake up to what is going on in Irish society in this regard. I was bullied as a child. I did not see myself as vulnerable but bullying made my life hell going to school, in school and coming from school. I went to school in a different era, but children are going through the same thing in the 21st century. That is wrong. We need to adopt approaches that work for our children, not talk about adopting them. If we are sincere about approaching this problem, why do we not let the Bill go through and have a real discussion about what is happening in society?

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