Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she has or will engage with the Department of Health and the Department of Education and Skills on the issue of school bullying of children by children and the grave implications of this targeted abuse on the mental health of young persons in their youth years and in later life; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46903/12]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The scale of bullying in Ireland remains a matter of grave concern. This is borne out by recent research findings. My Department’s Growing Up in Ireland study found that more than 24% of nine to 17 year olds have reported being bullied. The Anti-Bullying Centre in Trinity College Dublin has found one in four girls and one in six boys have been involved in cyberbullying either as a victim, bully or both.

Research commissioned by the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network, GLEN, and BeLonG To on the experiences of young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, LGBT, people in Irish schools has found that 58% reported the existence of homophobic bullying.

Deputy Ó Caoláin and I, as well as every other Member, are aware of the terrible and corrosive effects of a bullying culture on our children and young people. These effects relates to their confidence, learning outcomes, self-esteem and mental health and they can last for years. Sadly, in some case they can result in the loss of young lives. In recent times we have learned of several tragic cases involving bullying. On behalf of the Government and on my own behalf I extend my sympathies to the families and friends of the young people who have died.

As Minister for Children and Youth Affairs I am committed to working with colleagues in government to ensure that integrated policy responses to combat bullying are high on our agenda. The new Children First guidelines, which I published last year, recognise for the first time the problem of bullying. Earlier this year the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, and I hosted the first national anti-bullying forum to bring relevant stakeholders together. This was a great opportunity to bring together people who are working to address the issue, to explore how best to tackle bullying in schools and to consider the strategies and practices required to address new challenges associated with modern communications technologies.

The Education (Welfare) Act 2000 obliges all schools to have a code of behaviour. I call on schools to redouble their efforts to address the problems of bullying.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

I commend the work of the National Centre for Technology in Education on responding to the rise of cyber-bullying. I encourage parents, teachers, young people or anybody else with concerns about cyber-bullying to visit the website, www.webwise.ie, and I call on Members to help promote this website in their constituencies.

It is my intention to ensure that the actions recommended by the national anti-bullying forum working group and other measures to respond to bullying will be prioritised in the new children and young people's policy framework being prepared by my Department. As part of the preparations of the children and young people policy framework I have received a detailed submission on the issue of bullying from the anti-bullying centre in Trinity College and this is under review by my Department.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister for her reply. I wish to clarify one point in respect of the strategy. Did the Minister state that it obliges schools? Sadly, the evidence suggests that the address of this issue is most often down to the individual penchant of the school principal. We need something a good deal stronger to provide for where there is not sufficient or worthwhile compliance to what amounts only to a request. We need to make this central to our address of this serious problem.

I recognise that youth mental health is a critical issue that impinges not only on the wellbeing of young people in their young lives but it will impact them throughout their lifetimes. We have seen not only the tragedies to which the Minister referred but some high profile international instances, not least the case of Phoebe Prince, a young Irish girl who died tragically in the United States, and the most recent case highlighted in County Leitrim. Many lives have been seriously stunted, impaired or crippled by these experiences. We will never know the real number of tragically lost lives attributable to school bullying. Many of the situations where young lives are lost do not highlight the issues and it is not easy to establish the backdrop to the series of tragic incidents that present throughout this island on almost a weekly basis.

The Minister indicated she was taking an initiative in conjunction with the Minister for Education and Skills. How does the Minister propose to progress it? Will there be any examination of international best practice? The Scandinavian countries are often pointed to as good global examples but there are also examples here at home. Has there been any consideration of them? The Minister made mention of the anti-bullying centre in Trinity College, Headstrong and Dr. Tony Bates, who recently addressed Deputies.

Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Minister will have little time to answer.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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However, there are also community examples addressing this particular concern. I highlight the Erris community development project in County Mayo which launched an important, worthwhile and successful initiative earlier this year.

Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Deputy, you have left the Minister only 40 seconds to reply.

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Education (Welfare) Act 2000 obliges all schools to have a code of behaviour. The National Educational Welfare Board, which comes under the remit of my Department, has issued guidelines requiring each school to have policies to address bullying and schools must make it clear in their code of behaviour that bullying is unacceptable. Compliance by schools with this NEWB requirement is now inspected by the Department of Education and Skills inspectorate during whole school evaluations. The Department and the National Educational Welfare Board could not be clearer about the advice, guidelines and direction to schools in this regard. The guidelines document, which has been sent to all schools states:

The Board of Management of a school must have policies to prevent or address bullying and harassment.

Schools must make clear in their code of behaviour that bullying is unacceptable. Teachers have a professional duty of care to address bullying and the Department of Education and Science reinforces this duty in requiring schools to have anti-bullying policies.

As well as making explicit that bullying is prohibited in the school, and having an anti-bullying policy, the code of behaviour should say what action the school will take in relation to alleged breaches of the schools bullying policy. Templates and guidance on anti-bullying policies are available from the Department of Education and Science.

Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I remind Deputies that there are two minutes allocated to reply formally and four minutes for a supplementary question and answer. I will be tighter the next time.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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We appreciate the Chair's discretion.