Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is important to say, as the Senator mentioned, that it is not just with regard to children being bullied. It is something we want to stamp out.The Senator mentioned black children, Traveller children, those in direct provision and other marginalised areas of society. She also mentioned children with special educational needs which is under my remit as well, and cyberbullying, which is a component we were not dealing with perhaps to the same extent in 2013 as we are at present, and that needs to be looked at. The Department will update its national anti-bullying plan also. The part of that that comes under my remit is gender ID bullying, which is something I will look at. We have to have an ethos within the school which comes from the principal within the teaching staff and all the way down to the students in order that bullying becomes something of the past. The voice of the student will be critical in that regard, as will making sure the voice of the student, as well as the voice of the teacher, is heard in order that we can collaborate on a wider scale to eradicate bullying in its totality.