Susan O'Keeffe (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for being generous and giving of his time. I recently opened a seminar with the Sligo Education Centre on the Minister's behalf on bullying and cyberbullying. It took place after the untimely death of Ciara Pugsley and I would like to acknowledge her father's brave and dignified response and willingness to be part of what must be an extremely difficult debate for him.

At that seminar, the director of the Sligo Education Centre, Mary Hough, talked about how she had encouraged children in a local school to bring in photographs of themselves. She gathered the photographs and put them up on the school gate. The children were most surprised and confused and asked what she was doing. She told them that she was showing the photographs to people; parents and teachers would see them as they drove up to the school. The children were still puzzled and she told them that was what they were doing when posting material online, that they were showing the world what they are doing. She was trying to identify the disconnect children feel. Adults have it too; we all know we should not send an e-mail in haste because it is easy to be disconnected from reality when at a computer. Mary Hough put her finger on something and was then able to relate to the children in an easy way. Immediately they asked to have their photos removed, saying they did not want people to see them. All of a sudden the awkwardness and gaucheness of those teenage years was apparent.

Of course there is a lot of work to be done and this was just a small thing but the education centres may have a role to play. I am speaking for Sligo Education Centre, which has been very keen and positive about engaging with the whole school community. That will emerge in the work of the working group; this is about parents, teachers and pupils. Parents, increasingly as children get older, get left at the school gate. It was all right when they were six or nine or ten years of age to go in and say hello or wave goodbye to the teacher but when they are 13 or 14 it is absolutely not all right, in fact they do not want parents anywhere near the place. Parents begin then to feel less and less connected to their children, who in turn are disconnected from their own lives because of the way they can press buttons. That level of disconnect is something communities must respond to.

I pay particular tribute to the work of Comhairle na nÓg. In Donegal the local branch issued a top ten tips to unwind the mind. In Leitrim it issued a booklet about all the resources available to children and teenagers in the area. County Limerick Comhairle na nÓg ran an anti-bullying week with an anti-bullying awareness night while the Louth branch made a short film called "Behind My Smile" all about stressful situations and how to deal with them. In Waterford, Comhairle na nÓg did work on body image and drug use and invited very well known people, including their local Deputy, Ciara Conway, to talk about mental health. The Westmeath branch issued a DVD highlighting how peer pressure affects young people and the Wicklow branch ran a conference on homophobic bullying. There is a whole body of work children throughout the country, our children, have done. They have gone about it with no money apart from the little bit Comhairle na nÓg has to offer but they have knowledge and passion about the reality of life for them. That must inform the Minister's working group.

The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs came to the showcase of the work they did last Friday in Croke Park. It was wonderful to be there and share their energy and enthusiasm about something that is so close to them. Their friends are dying and they are our children. Somehow we must not lose the body of work that exists there, we must find a way to co-ordinate it. It might not be about money but their inventiveness and creativity is what we need.

Many Senators have spoken in an open and sharing way about their experiences as children, which is not an easy thing to do. We must see in a new age of creativity on this issue. We in the Labour Party had a campaign during the children's rights referendum for children to be seen and heard. They are there and want to talk to us. The very essence of Comhairle na nÓg is to have an impact in life. These children come together to do that and we must not waste what they have done. With the Minister's working group and their enormous efforts, we can make a difference.