Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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Question 57: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to ensure all school staff at primary and post primary level are trained in the proper procedures to deal with bullying. [14469/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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My Department's Guidelines on Countering Bullying in Primary and Post Primary Schools (1993) require all schools to have an anti bullying policy. It is the responsibility of school management to ensure that the guidelines are followed and if training is required, it is available from the Social, Personal & Health Education (SPHE) support service. My Department's support teams, the PDST and SPHE provide advice and guidance to schools on a range of school policies including their anti-bullying policies. In addition, the SPHE Anti Bullying Co-ordinator runs training courses on positive strategies for managing bullying issues. In the academic year 2010/2011, SPHE supported 1320 teachers from 330 schools and also provided cluster training in Education Support Centres. Since 2006 SPHE has supported 7,200 teachers.

Having regard to current priorities, for example literacy, numeracy and other pressures, I have no plans to introduce compulsory CPD for teachers in relation to bullying.