Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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181. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the extent to which her Department has received complaints in respect of bullying outside of school hours or in the workplace in respect of teenagers; the degree to which necessary provisions are being put in place to deal with such issues; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14650/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The reply is as follows:

Consultation with Young People

A national consultation was conducted with children and young people during 2011, in which they were asked questions about what is good, what is not good and what should be changed to improve the lives of children and young people in Ireland. 66,700 children and young people took part in the consultation. Life as a Child and Young Person in Ireland: Report of a National Consultation was published in 2012. Bullying and peer pressure emerged in the top eight 'not good' things for both children (aged 7-12) and young people (aged 12-18).

The Action Plan on bullying

The Action Plan On Bullying: Report of the Anti-Bullying Working Group to the Minister for Education and Skills was published in January 2013 clearly recognised the necessity to tackle this issue in a holistic way which saw schools as pivotal but placed the issue within a much wider social context. Amongst the actions which will be taken are:

A single national anti-bullying website is being developed to provide information for parents, young people, youth workers, sporting and cultural associations and school staff on types and methods of bullying and how to deal with bullying behaviour.

Stand Up Awareness Week Against Homophobic Bullying

In light of the identified need to combat bullying against LGBT young people or young people perceived to be LGBT, there will be continued support the Stand Up Awareness campaign led by BelongTo, an NGO which advocates for LGBT youth and which has received international recognition as an example of good practice combining work both in schools and in the wider community. BelongTo is partly funded by DCYA to undertake their work.

Support for media campaign focused on cyber bullying and specifically targeted at young people

In Ireland Safer Internet Day is promoted by the PDST Technology in Education and Webwise.ie. It is also strongly supported by the Safer Internet Ireland Project. For 2014 the theme was “ Let's create a better internet together".

To mark the day the Office for Internet Safety has published an information leaflet with key advice on how you can combat cyberbullying and how you can help others without putting yourself at risk. The leaflet was distributed to each Library Authority and made available in public libraries on Safer Internet Day.

Work with Youth services

Schools are strengthening collaboration and interaction with youth services and promote the active participation by pupils in youth focused services within their local communities. DCYA supports the National Youth Health Programme which is in partnership with the HSE and the National Youth Council of Ireland. The programme's aims are to provide a broad-based, flexible health promotion / education support and training service to youth organisations and to all those working with young people in out-of-school settings.