Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 445: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if her Department will consider the box and interview method to prevent bullying; and her views on whether existing measures are not working. [7725/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I am acutely aware of the issue of bullying in schools and my Department has in place a multifaceted strategy to tackle the issue. The education of students in both primary and post-primary schools in relation to anti-bullying behaviour is a central part of the SPHE curriculum. SPHE is now a compulsory subject both at primary level and in the junior cycle of post-primary schools. The SPHE curriculum provides for the development of personal and social skills including self-awareness, respect for others, self-esteem and communication skills, all of which are important elements in addressing the issue of bullying. In primary education, the issue of bullying is addressed in the SPHE curriculum in the strand, Myself and Others, from infant classes onwards. In second level education, the issue of bullying is addressed from first year onwards in the SPHE curriculum at junior cycle in the module, Belonging and Integrating.

Each school is required to have in place within the framework of an overall school code of behaviour and discipline a policy which includes specific measures to deal with bullying behaviour. Such a code, properly devised and implemented, can be the most influential measure in countering bullying behaviour in schools.

My Department in its guidelines on countering bullying behaviour in primary and post-primary schools has provided a framework within which individual school management authorities may meet their responsibilities for implementing effective school-based policies to counter bullying. These guidelines are sufficiently flexible to allow each school authority to adapt them to suit the particular needs of the school and to incorporate, should it so wish, any methodology such as the one referred to by the Deputy.