Marie Moloney (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak to the motion. I welcome the Minister. He has been sitting in every room I have entered today.

I join my colleagues in extending deepest sympathy to every family that has been affected by suicide, particularly suicide related to bullying. Bullying in schools is an issue at the forefront of media and public attention. Is it not sad that it takes a tragic youth suicide to bring this to public attention? Communities need to recognise that the problem is not just confined to schools but goes on everywhere. For children to grow up in an environment in which they can reach their potential, everyone must be involved in tackling all forms of bullying. The victims of bullying feel isolated, alone and afraid. These feelings only get worse when there is no one to turn to. Parents can only do so much with teenagers. Things get increasingly worse in the mind of the child experiencing bullying. I am saddened that the economic climate has necessitated cuts to the number of careers guidance counsellors in schools. Some guidance counsellors were excellent and connected with their pupils, and pupils felt they could go to the guidance counsellor with their problems. I hope that as the situation improves, it will be a priority for the posts of guidance counsellor to be filled. It may not happen in the lifetime of the Government but I hope that some government will prioritise guidance services for students.

The print media have covered the tragic circumstances of youth suicide, but in all the articles I have never once seen a reference to the telephone number of the helpline for those affected by suicide. The media has a role to play and could suggest that people who are feeling lonely, sad, depressed, suicidal or bullied should ring this helpline. As paper never refused ink, that number could be printed.

I am delighted the Government announced an anti-bullying forum early in the life of the new Dáil. I hope the action plan will be produced as soon as possible. We need to change our approach to bullying. We need to begin to stop bullying rather than dealing with the consequences. We need to give teachers the tools to prevent bullying in schools. This means workshops on the causes of bullying, prevention measures and so on.

Teachers care for the welfare of their pupils and that may be overlooked. We need to create an environment in which teachers can teach. We must educate students to prevent bullying happening in the first place. The social, personal and health education and the civic, social and political education curricula need to be enhanced in order that students are taught to accept, respect and tolerate others. This should not end in the classroom. Schools and local communities should connect to ensure teenagers are interacting with each other.

With regard to the issue of cyberbullying which appears to be rampant, greater vigilance is needed. Websites have administrators who do the best they can. They must be alert to this and try to stamp out cyberbullying.

Bullying is nothing new. In the old days before new technology, pupils had the safe haven of home and could get away from the bullying, but that is not the case anymore because the Internet, Facebook, Twitter and texting are in the home and the bullying follows them home. They can no longer shut it out.

We need to educate parents on how to use the Internet and social media. Some parents would not have a clue. Recently a woman asked me to teach her how to text. Parents should be taught how to monitor what is happening on the Internet.

Some teenagers are really good and we had evidence of that when Comhairle na nÓg made a presentation to the education committee. They spoke about mental health and cyberbullying. We can learn from them as they made suggestions on how some of the issues can be dealt with. We should listen to what they are saying.

I do not envy the Minister's task because I do not know how to legislate for cyberbullying, but I hope he will find a way. I commend the Fine Gael Senators who tabled this motion.