Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The yellow flag programme, based on the same principle as the green flag environmental education programme, and developed by the Irish Traveller Movement, ITM, is a school-based programme and award scheme which recognises a school's work in promoting diversity and inclusion. The programme works through a model based on eight practical steps which allows schools to apply the steps to the day-to-day running of the school. The yellow flag programme is a practical scheme with an award incentive. Following completion of the eight steps and external assessment of the school, it is awarded its yellow flag in recognition of its work in promoting diversity and inclusion.

The programme operates through a co-operative approach of students, staff, management, parents and wider community groups so that issues of diversity and equality are not merely seen as school subjects but can be understood and taken outside the school setting into everyone's personal lives, creating an environment for inclusion with a long-term impact on wider society. The yellow flag programme was initially piloted in four schools, two primary and two secondary, in 2008 to 2009. A further 17 schools in Dublin, Wicklow, Clare, Galway, Louth, Meath, Kerry and Limerick have been included in the programme.

The yellow flag programme is a private initiative supported by philanthropic funding. It is not funded by the Department. I am pleased to say that the authors of the yellow flag programme, the Irish Traveller Movement, were consulted on the development of the anti-bullying action plan which I launched recently. The ITM made a comprehensive submission and also met the anti-bullying working group to outline the particular issues that arise for children from the Traveller community who experience bullying at school and the role of the yellow flag programme in addressing the issues. The action plan report recognised that while bullying can happen to anyone, some groups are particularly at risk. A number of submissions to the working group focused specifically on vulnerable groups including children and young people from the Traveller community. The working group recommended that the definition of bullying in the new national procedures for schools should include a specific reference to identity-based bullying and that all grounds of harassment under the Equal Status Acts should be listed in anti-bullying policies - gender, including transgender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, race and membership of the Traveller community.

The popularity of the yellow flag programme means that it clearly strikes a chord with schools who wish to develop inclusive and respectful school communities. I hope it will be possible for the Irish Traveller Movement to continue to make it available to schools. At the very least I hope that some best practice and learning in this important area can be extracted from its use to date for wider use.

See this speech in context