Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

At 7 a.m. Jack Straw was speaking about equality when David Frost told him that he could not legislate for attitudes. Jack Straw agreed, but replied that he could legislate to ensure that a person's attitude would not detrimentally affect someone else. That is what the Government is doing. A great deal of work must be done in respect of the type of violence referred to by Senator Eamonn Coghlan. Someone can be physically abused for standing up to verbal abuse, yet his or her word on it might not be taken despite there being evidence and witnesses. We have all been there and know how it works. The State's institutions need to take account of this issue.

No one could claim that I am not completely in favour of equality. I always have been. It is something I no longer question, it is part of what I am.

I am not certain that marriage equality will stop bullying. Bullying is a separate issue. It is something insidious and we must be continuously conscious of it. We must stamp it out, even at the very early stages. As a grandmother of two young boys in national school, I know this type of bullying is used as a form of abuse, even when a child is not homosexual. That shows how endemic the matter has become and we must stop it. Even when a child does not understand the consequences of what is being said, it is still used, which I find very worrying. It must be stopped.

Being a teenager is difficult enough at the best of times. Imagine if a person's essence or sexuality is being questioned. It is what we are so imagine if this is challenged. Even if a person is not homosexual, bisexual or transgender, such a challenge in those circumstances must have serious repercussions. I do not accept that teachers should not deal with this because they do not know how to deal with this issue. Teachers deal with very difficult matters every day of the week and we could introduce a whole-of-school approach, where a teacher would not be isolated, alone or subject to the type of bullying that can go on in secondary schools, even with teachers. The Minister, Deputy Quinn, is putting in place this whole-of-school approach, and with it we could do something about this problem.

The first and only idea we must drive into society is that tolerance is above all else. We should be tolerant of other people's differences, no matter what they are, and in doing so we will have a better society in which we can all be more comfortable and live in a more open and generous fashion. As each of us can understand the difficulties that arise when a person's essence is challenged, we must be constantly on our guard against it. I saw the BeLonG To video Stand Up! and we have all done what it portrays through the years. It might have been under different circumstances or guises but we all did it. What we are saying is that people should support one another.

With regard to cyber bullying, our young people are now under more pressure than ever. We did not have to deal with Facebook, Twitter or texting when we were teenagers. We must get parents to have a serious look at what is happening in schools and communities because children and teenagers are not inclined to tell parents everything. Perhaps we should try to get adolescents to talk to one significant adult, even if it is not a mother, father or teacher. No one is coming to the table without the best of intentions, but homophobic bullying is quite a damaging prospect for society.