Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I warmly welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, to the House.

The issue I want to address today relates to the Irish National Teachers Organisation, INTO, the union that represents national school teachers. Many of us will be familiar with the union's magazine, InTouch, that it sends us every month and which is very informative. As a result of reading an article in that magazine, it became obvious to me that the union had made a detailed submission on the issue of bullying and the need for continual supports for teachers, parents, guardians and children in and around this sensitive issue. I thank the president of the INTO, Ms Mary Magner, for her significant leadership in this area.

As the Minister of State will be aware, teachers and the INTO want to operate schools in a safe and inclusive environment for all their pupils regardless of their social background, race, self-identity or learning needs. As we are talking about schools and teachers, how they have supported and engaged in terms of getting schools back open during Covid-19 is something we need to acknowledge.

The reality is bullying exists in our school communities and is an issue for teachers, pupils, parents and the wider school community. The anti-bullying procedures for primary schools and post-primary schools were introduced in 2013. One issue the INTO leadership and members have is that there has not been a major review of this policy since 2013, and they are crying out for it. They believe they need the necessary supports and skill sets to deal with the complex issues. The complex issues are wide and varied, from LGBT+ based bullying to race-based bullying, all of which have a negative impact on the mental health and well-being of pupils and, for that matter, teachers. This has to stop.

Cyberbullying, as everyone in this House knows, requires no face-to-face contact. It can occur day and night, and happens day or night. It impacts on children, young people and adults, including teachers and politicians. It is something we need to deal with.

Something my research on this issue showed clearly was that children from Travelling communities are vulnerable to bullying, children who are black or identify as belonging to a minority ethnic culture are vulnerable to bullying, and children who are perceived as being different in the broader sense of different are particularly subject to bullying and harassment. Children whose mother does not have the native tongue, children in direct provision, and children who are black or from a minority ethnic group are all being targeted for bullying day in and day out in our schools and it has to stop. Racially based abuse humiliates and dehumanises the heart of our children and their identity and their ability to realise their full potential and be their authentic selves. It is clearly an issue.

The INTO also talks about the social, personal and health education, SPHE, for which there are only 30 minutes in the curriculum every week. That is an issue because this programme empowers, assists, enables and helps children to deal with conflict resolution, bullying and other issues around them. It is important that be examined.

Schools are also places of employment for teachers and they involve boards of management, parents and guardians. We hear terrible stories of teachers being subject to inappropriate behaviour from school management, colleagues and pupils. This behaviour can be in the form of words, gestures and publications, both in print and on social media. There are major issues and we need to support our teachers.

I do not doubt the Minister of State's support. Indeed, I am familiar with many teachers in Scoil Treasa, which is a school that is very close to where the Minister of State lives, and people speak of the Minister of State's enormous commitment to education. They speak of her enormous commitment to the INTO and her knowledge of the important work the INTO and its members do. I would like if the Minister of State could outline how we can come on board and support the INTO in this important call for it, for its members' employment, for teachers and for children.

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Boyhan for raising this matter.

I understand that the Senator is referring to one of a number of recommendations made by the INTO in a recent submission to the Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in respect of the committee's examination of school bullying and its impact on mental health.I echo the Senator's sentiments on the Trojan work the INTO has done on reopening schools in a Covid environment. I acknowledge the work Ms Mary Magner and the INTO do each day to educate children in their formative years. Obviously, any matters regarding bullying that teachers receive have to be taken into account in any anti-bullying action plan we are considering in terms of words, gestures and publications, as the Senator mentioned.

The primary and post-primary schools anti-bullying procedures were published by the Department in September 2003 and are being implemented in 4,000 recognised primary and post-primary schools in the country as well as centres for education which are attended by students under the age of 18 years. These procedures give direction and guidance to schools on preventing and tackling school-based bullying behaviour and to deal with any negative impact within the school of bullying behaviour that occurs elsewhere. In addition, the "Wellbeing Policy Statement and Framework for Practice" was published in 2018 and refreshed in 2019. It sets out the ambition and vision in the Department of Education that the promotion of well-being will be at the core of the ethos of every school and centre for education in Ireland and that all schools will provide evidence-informed approaches and support appropriate to the need to promote the well-being of their students. This statement sets out the evidence base for best practices in the school environment in respect of school well-being promotion, which indicates that schools should adopt a whole-school, multi-component preventive approach to well-being promotion that includes both universal and targeted interventions. All schools are required to embark on a review of their well-being promotion process by 2025. That may help with regard to the Senator's remarks about a review. That should be done by 2025.

It is vital that there is support for teachers and schools in terms of professional development opportunities in the areas of well-being, as well as social, personal and health education and the stay safe and anti-bullying programmes. They have to be available to teachers and school leaders. Most of the supports in this area are provided by the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, with which the Senator will be familiar, and the NEPS staff from the Department of Education or by the Professional Development Service for Teachers, PDST, which is the largest teacher education support service funded by the Department. NEPS provides a comprehensive school-based psychological service to all primary and post-primary schools through the application of psychological theory and practice to support the well-being and the academic, social and emotional development of all learners. In addition to this service, it has also developed a range of resources for schools and parents to support the well-being of children and young people in line with the well-being policy statement and framework for practice that I mentioned.

In response to Covid-19, NEPS has developed well-being webinars and well-being tool kits for school staff. These contain information, guidance, tips and advice for schools on how best to support the well-being of all children and young people, including those with special educational needs, following the Covid-19 school closures.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State. Her comments were exceptionally helpful. There is a review, and I welcome that. However, it is a learning curve for everyone - children, young people, teachers and parents. It is important to acknowledge that, and that we continue to monitor it on an ongoing basis. The INTO represents over 40,000 people in the staff. It represents the national schools across the Republic. We should not be short in supporting those people in their work in helping children to understand the complexities and to support them, but also to allow teachers, as individuals in the workplace, to have dignity, be respected and to be able to be themselves. Everyone is on this journey and we must support everyone. It must be kept on the agenda. We must continue working on identifying and calling it out for what it is. It is intimidation and bullying, and it is unacceptable. We will call it out for what it is and put a stop to it, as well as support the teachers, children, parents and guardians to tackle this head on.

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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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.