Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. I thank Senator Ruane for highlighting this issue and bringing it to the fore. I fully support her motion. I also praise the Minister and his departmental staff for making this issue a priority and highlighting the issues facing staff and students in higher education, with ongoing initiatives to create safe campuses for all. Indeed, last year, the Minister confirmed that a survey was to be carried out into sexual harassment and bullying of both staff and students in our institutions. The survey will remain open for a number of weeks and its findings are due to be published by the end of the current academic year. This is very important. Dublin City University, DCU, has carried out a great deal of work on the issue but that seems to have concentrated on primary and post-primary levels, so I am delighted this survey is happening.

In 2021, colleges throughout Ireland will implement a range of steps to fight sexual violence, including consent classes, disclosure training and anonymous reporting tools. In this ever-changing world, however, we need to focus on educating our young people, so why not start in secondary school? We need to start the conversation, perhaps earlier than we would like to, but it needs to be done. A study published by Rape Crisis Network Ireland in July this year warned that Irish teenagers experience high levels of sexual harassment, with 80% of adolescents reporting they had been subject to some form of harassment in the previous year. This was based on a survey of 600 teenagers and interviews with 93 adolescents and 21 youth workers. It asked participants about their experiences during the previous 12 months, with ages ranging from 13 to 17. The findings showed that 24% of the teenagers surveyed had been subjected to physical or extreme forms of sexual harassment, while 83% had witnessed some form of sexual harassment, which is a staggering figure. More than 40% of the sexual harassment reported by the teenagers surveyed had occurred online, while 12% had taken place in school. The report also found that almost 70% of LGBT teenagers had experienced serious sexual harassment, while girls were almost twice as likely as boys to have experienced unwanted sexual touches. Girls were also twice as likely to have faced sexual harassment online.

I am not in favour of the use of non-disclosure agreements. We need to listen to victims, not silence them.

I sit on the Oireachtas joint committee that is conducting pre-legislative scrutiny of the online safety and media relations Bill, along with Senator Byrne, and we have been discussing the issue of online bullying and digital safety with a number of companies. The issue of bullying has been highlighted by all the members of the committee with the various social media companies when their representatives came before us. We have asked that an education programme be funded by those companies. Facebook, Twitter and TikTok have appeared before us and we have had varying levels of commitment, but I must compliment TikTok, which has engaged with me since its appearance before the committee and is prepared to put funding behind such a scheme. It is important to recognise that positive engagement.

I support the recent comments of Senator Byrne in defence of his colleagues following the Fianna Fáil think-in. We are all colleagues in the Oireachtas and comments such as those he raised are completely out of order. They reflect a poor standard of journalism.It is hard to put oneself forward for public life and the way one dresses, one's family and one's sexuality are off limits. That point needs to be put out there and the media should apologise to our colleagues for those comments.

I will refer to comments the Minister made recently that touch on the whole issue. We need to work together to create a culture of zero tolerance where education around consent is a requirement and not an option, not just for students but also for those teaching and guiding them. The very least our young people deserve is a safe environment to study and work free from harassment or violence.