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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 14, 18 and 25 together.

The Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, and I published an Action Plan on Bullying in January of last year which sets out 12 actions to help prevent and tackle bullying in schools. I have made €500,000 available in 2014 and I am satisfied that this is an adequate sum of money to support the implementation of the action plan.

The implementation of the actions is progressing. New Anti-Bullying National Procedures were published last September. These will be adopted and form the basis for anti-bullying policies in all schools during this school year. In addition, training materials for parents, teacher and boards of management are being developed and rolled out.

Awareness raising initiatives on cyberbullying, including Up2Us, a new resource to tackle cyberbullying, are provided through the Internet safety initiative, Webwise. In 2013 and 2014 the Department supported Safer Internet Day, an initiative that addresses Internet safety issues, including cyberbullying, for young people.

The Department also supported the Stand Up! Awareness Week Against Homophobic and Transphobic Bullying in second level schools which took place in March 2013 and 2014 and has commissioned research on bullying of particular groups, which will be published this year. Implementation of these and other actions identified in the plan will continue in 2014.

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