Caít Keane (Fine Gael)

This House should be the place in which the Minister, Deputy Hogan, makes his announcement and presents the report and recommendations. He has indicated that he will be bringing them forward shortly but we do not know the length of that piece of string and the local elections are approaching.

I refer to the issue of Facebook and the Department of Education and Skills. Two pupils were expelled from a school in Dublin for posting abusive remarks about their teachers on Facebook and a further 40 were given detention for liking the posts. This is a serious matter because posting abusive comments about teachers or children on Facebook is as serious a form of bullying as bullying verbally or by telephone. The ASTI have come out on the issue. I ask the Minister for Education and Skills to draw up a protocol for social media because schools may handle problems differently depending on their principals. It would send a serious message to students and teachers about respect for social media. These media are available for everybody to use but they have to be respected.