Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 32: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to ensure that all schools develop anti-bullying policies and strategies to combat homophobic bullying in their schools. [9854/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I take the issue of bullying in schools very seriously. I am committed to ensuring schools tackle bullying in all its forms, including homophobic bullying. Under the Education (Welfare) Act 2000, all schools are required to have in place a code of behaviour and this code must be drawn up in accordance with the guidelines of the National Educational Welfare Board. The board's guidelines, which were issued to schools in 2008, make it clear that each school must have policies to prevent or address bullying and harassment and that schools must make clear in their code of behaviour that bullying is unacceptable. The guidelines further state that as well as making explicit that bullying is prohibited in the school and having an anti-bullying policy, the code of behaviour should indicate what action the school will take on foot of alleged breaches of the school's bullying policy. Every school must have in place a policy which includes specific measures to deal with bullying behaviour, within the framework of the school's overall school code of behaviour. Such a code, developed through consultation with the whole school community and properly implemented, can be the most influential measure in countering bullying behaviour in schools. Responsibility for tackling bullying falls to the level of the individual school, as it is at local level that an effective anti-bullying climate must be established and at that level that actions should be taken to address allegations of bullying.

My Department has also issued Guidelines on Countering Bullying Behaviour as an aid to schools in devising measures to prevent and deal with instances of bullying behaviour. These guidelines were drawn up following consultation with representatives of school management, teachers and parents, and are sufficiently flexible to allow each school authority to adapt them to suit the particular needs of a school. As a further aid to post-primary schools, my Department has published a template that can be used by post-primary schools in developing anti-bullying policies. The anti-bullying policy template is based primarily on the key document Guidelines on Countering Bullying Behaviour. However, it also takes account of more recent legislative and regulatory changes. It refers to issues of contemporary concern, such as the need to tackle text bullying, cyber-bullying and homophobic bullying. The education of students in primary and post-primary schools in relation to anti-bullying behaviour is part of the Social, Personal and Health Education curriculum. Social, Personal and Health Education is now a compulsory subject at primary level and in the junior cycle of post-primary schools.