Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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14. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide an update on the anti-bullying campaigns in schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16473/14]

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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18. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the measures in place against cyberbullying in schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16474/14]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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25. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he is satisfied that anti-bullying campaigns in schools have sufficient resources; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16465/14]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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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.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for that update. Obviously, the implementation of the anti-bullying plan involves everyone within a school and it is important that everyone works together to ensure that students are kept safe and that there is a happy environment within the school. With reference to the guidance counsellor role, the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, took the earlier direct question on that matter and in his response he very much seemed to indicate that it was entirely a matter for the school and seemed to minimise the importance of a school ensuring that it had a fully qualified guidance counsellor available to play his or her part within the school, working along with others. We seem to be seeing from the Minister and the Department that this particular role is being diminished. It is particularly important in regard to the implementation of this plan and also in regard to providing the ancillary supports necessary as part of a comprehensive anti-bullying strategy within each school.

Will the Minister comment on the role of guidance counsellors and whether he agrees with the response given earlier by the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon?

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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From my point of view the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, gave a very accurate response in answer to the supplementary questions asked by Deputy Ó Fearghaíl. When considering reductions in the overall pupil-teacher ratio at second level, we had to make a difficult choice regarding the idea that a particular category of teacher would be ring-fenced and ex-quota when in many cases these teachers were qualified to teach a subject before they became guidance counsellors. I will be very frank with Deputies McConalogue and O'Brien. Reducing the overall pupil-teacher ratio in post-primary schools has an uneven effect which is very difficult to predict because we do not have the information as to the impact on subject choice in a post-primary school if the pupil-teacher ratio is reduced and a teacher is lost, either immediately or very quickly, as a consequence. Therefore, I did not reduce the pupil-teacher ratio in post-primary schools but I did mainstream the guidance teacher allocation. This was the equivalent of a reduction of 0.6 in the pupil-teacher ratio.

I did this because I was under economic pressure to do so and because the principals of many schools had come to me informally and stated they would prefer to deploy the guidance teacher resource, including guidance provision, throughout the school, so that when guidance provision was done the teachers could be allocated to other requirements within the school. There is an ongoing debate about leadership in schools and having as much autonomy and resources as possible at the discretion of the principal and his or her team. This is what we are trying to do. I fully support the position articulated by the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, because it is clearly in line with the position we have enunciated for some time.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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The approach we are seeing from the Minister and the policy he has adopted very much diminishes the importance of the guidance counsellor role vis-à-visother teaching roles in schools. One would not send a teacher qualified in Irish to teach English unless he or she also had a qualification in English. Likewise, one would not have someone who was unqualified teaching a maths class; nor would the Minister advocate it. What the Minister stated in his response is that to avoid an impact on subject choice he decided that the least worst option was a reduction in the guidance counselling role and that principals could cut this if they so decided to provide greater subject choice or to cater for other needs in the school. I do not think this is acceptable. The response we have received from the Minister and Minister of State that other teachers can do this work acknowledges the fact the role played by guidance counsellors is very important and specialist in terms of career guidance, which is a traditional role in which much knowledge is required, and with regard to counselling, in which they are qualified and which requires qualifications.

We are going down a dangerous road in removing an essential service that has been built up over a period of time. Not acknowledging this and standing over the fact that he will continue this approach is something about which the Minister must think very seriously. He must change the direction in which he is going.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I fundamentally disagree with the Deputy. The two traditional aspects to guidance counsellors are pastoral care and actual career guidance. The resources for career guidance, the amount of information available and a host of other facilities which exist are totally different from what was available ten, 15, 20 or 30 years ago.

With regard to pastoral care and mental health in a school environment - particularly in post-primary schools, which is what we are discussing - in the health document published by the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, she clearly articulated that the mental health of the school community is the responsibility of everybody in the school community and that everybody should feel empowered. If somebody is in an unhappy place, which could lead to very tragic circumstances, the potential victim or sufferer should feel comfortable enough to be able to articulate his or her concerns in the first instance to any member of the school community or to a friend and tell someone he or she is feeling very depressed. The person told should feel empowered to say to the guidance counsellor that the first person is feeling very depressed, or should be seen to, and in turn the guidance counsellor, who is not a qualified psychiatrist or health worker per sebut who has very clear skills, should be able to refer the person to a proper professional service.

In light of many of the tragedies we have had in schools recently - we are all aware of them - the health of the school community and the young people in it in particular must be more than just one person's responsibility. This was the message very clearly sent out by the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch. Some people felt this was an intrusion into their area, although this is not true of all guidance counsellors. We must recognise that young people in particular suffer through cyberbullying and a host of other issues, and we have had great tragedies, including very poignant tragedies in Deputy McConalogue's constituency. We must make it the responsibility of more than just one person.