Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

First, I must say that the country has been sickened and disturbed by the shocking attack on this young boy; the random violent nature of it, the videoing of it and the posting of the video online. I have not seen the video but some who did have described it as stomach-churning and quite shocking. I agree with the Deputy that there is absolutely no place in our society for such violence. More broadly, there has been increased violence against our LGBTI community, which is quite disturbing. I believe collectively, in this House and across the country, we condemn what has happened. We have to ensure that our response is multifaceted and multidisciplinary and by that I mean both within the general culture within society and, as the Deputy has said, from a parental point of view and a home-based point of view, we need to rededicate ourselves to eliminating such violence and such a culture of intimidation, bullying and violence from our society. That is constant work that we have to work on every day in every setting, including in the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

There has to be a child-based response. The passing, by this House, of the hate crime Bill is one such step. From the justice perspective, some very significant work has been undertaken by the Garda over the years and more recently in terms of the youth diversion programme, and in working with young people who get involved in unacceptable behaviour and activities with a view to trying to prevent them from going down the wrong path in a significant way. There are a number of ways we have to approach this. Within education itself, the Cineáltas programme, which was launched in December 2022, is an action plan on bullying. That followed extensive consultation with the school community at large, including all members, parents, teachers and students. It is founded on a rights-based approach, rooted in four key principles, namely, prevention, support, oversight and community. It provides a very clear roadmap for the entire education community in terms of working together to prevent violent incidents such as this and bullying as a phenomenon within our society, community and schools. I think we have to focus on implementing such well-resourced strategies on a consistent basis to deal with these kind of issues. Many communities and schools are doing that, but it is quite shocking what has transpired here. That gives us an insight that notwithstanding all of the programmes, good behaviour and mentoring that is taking place in different contexts, including in youth clubs, schools and sporting clubs, this type of horrific incident still occurs.

In respect of the office of the Online Safety Commissioner, progress has been made on that. I do not have an exact timeline or date here for the Deputy today. It will have very important work to do to prevent the online violence and bullying that has become a phenomenon as well, as part and parcel of the social media world. I will endeavour to be balanced here. The companies concerned have obligations and work to remove harmful material from many of their platforms, but there has to be a faster and more rapid response to posting of such videos to have them removed.

Our thoughts today are with that young boy and with his parents and family. The well-being of all our children and young people must be uppermost in our minds. We send our support and solidarity to him and his family from this House today.

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