Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Senator Norris made the point very well that adults and people in the public eye, which the Senator is much more than I, should watch their conduct. The Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas are the ultimate bullies. When one considers what will be shown on "Oireachtas Report" this evening it is highly unlikely to be anybody praising a Minister or a Member of the Opposition praising a Member of the Government or vice versa. It tends to be highly adversarial and highly charged. We should be careful.

Senator Norris also made a point about the B-rated television programmes which we all support. These magazines and shows which advocate bullying and put forward bullying, downgrading and denigrating people as a sport are supported and recorded in all of our households. We might often joke about politics being a spectator sport for all the wrong reasons but there is a message in this.

With regard to cyberbullying, I got into awful trouble politically about a year and a half ago for something I said in the House, and because of its nature it went viral very quickly. It had to do with politics.ie and thejournal.ie. I questioned one's right to anonymity while on the Internet. I do not know how one would deal with this from a legislative perspective nationally or internationally, but the Government of the day should use whatever international fora are open to it with regard to the Internet or co-operation in this regard because anonymity is the single biggest issue to be dealt with. The anonymity allowing one to be Mickey Mouse in one chatroom and Ed Dantes in another while I can be Eamonn Coghlan in the next chatroom and he can be Marc MacSharry in the one after that, is a major problem. We are all thick skinned and on political websites we are all subject to very substantial abuse with all types of language being used, but it is the business we have chosen.

Facebook is reasonably well managed in that abusive language can be removed quite quickly. However, other sites are not policed or regulated and it is not possible to regulate them. People have as heroes those who probably between downloading pornography dip into these sites to hurl abuse under the relative anonymity of a pseudonym. I do not know how the Minister will deal with this, but if I were to pick one area I would like to see addressed it is anonymity on the Internet because this would help us. Senator Eamonn Coghlan is absolutely correct to state there has always been bullying and if we had no Facebook or Ask.fm we would still have bullying and, sadly, we would still have suicides we could relate to bullying.

This is not a political bashing exercise, but as soon as resources can be diverted from elsewhere, the Minister must reverse the move on guidance counsellors. In addition he must consider putting career guidance counsellors in primary schools. People might laugh at this, but adolescence naturally brings pressures in its own right as people get older and worry about sexual orientation and body image, and pupils pick subjects at the age of 12 which will dictate what they do when they are 21 and they are not equipped for this. They need help with this and I do not think the teacher training provided adequately equips secondary or primary school teachers to tell students they are ideal for physics, Spanish or technical drawing. We need people with specialist expertise to assist in this regard.

We are all united in the wish for a solution to suicide, but we are divided on how we think we should go about it. I am working on the Fianna Fáil policy in this area at present. Senator Power made proposals on youth mental health and my proposals will dovetail with these with regard to suicide prevention. For the want of a better phrase, at times it suits to be able to state suicide A was linked to cyberbullying, suicide B was linked to mental health and suicide C was linked to financial issues. Society has failed on this issue and despite the report published in 2006, countless Administrations involving Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party have got this issue wrong for a generation or two and the figures speak for themselves.

We need to change the structural report.

Some of the basis of the proposals that I will bring forward, probably after Christmas, will be a structural approach which would, as others have mentioned, mirror the likes of the Road Safety Authority. It is a completely different issue but structurally it was correct in how it was approached. Suicide prevention measures are like headless chicken going in all directions. They have good intentions but are failing. If resources for the National Office for Suicide Prevention were linked to the number of deaths, as those of the Road Safety Authority are, it would be receiving ¤64 million per year as opposed to just ¤7 million. In recent days a director was appointed to the office, as mentioned by Senator Norris. He is a former manager of the HSE in the midlands area. I am sure he is excellent and will do an excellent job, but I did not see the post advertised anywhere. The role requires a broader trawl when seeking someone to head up the office.