Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

First, I thank all of the Deputies who contributed to the Second Stage debate on this Bill, both those who spoke for and those who spoke against it. I also thank Dr. Stephen Minton from Trinity College Dublin, who is one of Ireland's leading experts on bullying and who freely gave his expertise at both the research and drafting stages of the Bill, and Mr. Simon Gillespie and Mr. Gavin Gallagher in my office who put in a great deal of research time prior to the final draft being published.

It is clear from the individual contributions, both last night and tonight, that there is a recognition that there is a need to urgently address this issue. I do not think any Deputy who spoke on the issue would disagree with that. We also realise that it is not only something which is confined solely to the education sector. It is something which has to be addressed across society as a whole. The question is will we continue to speak as individuals or will we act as a collective in this Oireachtas by introducing legislation to provide the framework needed to deal with this complex issue? We need to ask ourselves are we individuals or will we deal with it as a collective.

Last night, in my own contribution I provided some detail of the rationale for putting forward this Bill. I did so in the hope that we could achieve cross-party consensus on this issue because it is one that affects tens of thousands of people across the State, from children and teenagers to teachers and parents.

While researching the issue of bullying in preparation for publishing this Bill, we looked at what works best internationally. We placed a particular focus on the Norwegian model because it is recognised internationally as one of the most progressive in dealing with anti-bullying measures. During that stage of research, it quickly became evident to us that all of the countries that have progressively dealt with bullying and that have reduced the number of incidents of bullying, particularly within the school network, had done so on the basis of putting in place legal frameworks from the outset which they then used as building blocks to carry on. It is clear that a key principle of anti-bullying work starts with such legislation.

The initial legislation put in place in those countries which we looked at, such as Norway to which I referred and Sweden, provided not only the framework for that space where they were currently dealing with it but also the building blocks for future frameworks. For instance, it has been proved that countries which have in place the legislative framework are better equipped to deal with the evolving nature of bullying as a result. They are not relying solely on guidelines and are beginning with a head-start.

As I stated yesterday, the current problem in the State is that we are relying solely on 20 year old guidelines which are outdated. The Minister has stated he will publish a report. The report has been put back to Tuesday next but so far none of the media reports on it has stated whether it will contain any legislative reform. All of the media reports have talked about enhanced guidelines. All of them have talked about reporting mechanisms which are templates. I believe that unless there is a combination of regulations and guidelines, we will continue to see this ad hoc approach from school to school. Some schools are excellent when it comes to bullying in the procedures they put in place but other schools are not. We have a responsibility to provide that legislative framework so that every school is starting from a good place.

Last night, the Minister of State, Deputy White outlined a number of issues that the Government had with this Bill. One of those that stuck me was where he cited the concern about tasking one individual with too much responsibility. Perhaps he understood and needed to justify the Government's decision not to accept the Bill because if he had read section 3(2)(d) he would have seen it states clearly that "the Board of Management shall prepare countermeasures to bullying which the school must comply with." It is not up to one individual. It is up to one individual to have the oversight of those anti-bullying measures.

This Bill also directs the Minister for Education and Skills to introduce regulations and those regulations will form the basis of the anti-bullying measures which the board of management will then introduce. This is in keeping with the whole-school approach because it is the board of management which formulates the anti-bullying measures, in consultation with parents, students, teaching staff and based on regulations which have been issued by the Department of Education and Skills. We are tasking one individual with the responsibility for the oversight because we can no longer have a situation, as Deputy McDonald stated, where everybody is responsible but nobody is accountable.

I ask the Government to reconsider voting against the Bill.

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