Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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135. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if there is a national educational policy with regard to the management of peer sexual assault in post primary education; if one is being drafted; and the location in which it can be accessed. [28171/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Justice and Equality is responsible for the national criminal justice framework and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs is responsible for national policy in relation to the protection and welfare of children. 

My Department’s role is to give guidance and direction to schools in relation to meeting their statutory and other obligations in respect of the protection of children, including in relation to the reporting of child abuse.

The statutory requirements of the Children First Act 2015 became fully operational on 11 December 2017 when the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs commenced the remaining provisions of the Children First Act 2015.

The Children First Act 2015 put in place a statutory obligation on certain professionals who work with children (referred to as mandated persons and including all registered teachers) to report child protection concerns at or above a defined threshold to Tusla. Under this Act, all concerns about sexual abuse must be reported by mandated persons to Tusla.

The Children First Act 2015 operates side-by-side with the Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children (2017) which was published by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs on 2 October and also became operational on 11 December 2017.

The full commencement of the Children First Act, 2015 and the publication of the new Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children 2017 necessitated changes to the existing Child Protection Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary Schools.

In December 2017, my Department published new Child Protection Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary School 2017 which give direction and guidance to schools authorities and to school personnel in relation to meeting their new statutory obligations under the Children First Act, 2015 and in the continued implementation of the best practice (non-statutory) guidance set out in Children First National Guidance 2017 which requires all reasonable concerns about child abuse, including sexual abuse, to be reported to Tusla.  The new procedures are published on my Departments website www.education.ie.

My Department’s procedures for schools also outline that under the Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012 it is a criminal offence to withhold information about a serious offence, including a sexual offence, against a person under 18 years or a vulnerable person. The offence arises where a person knows or believes that a specified offence has been committed against a child or vulnerable person and he or she has information which would help arrest, prosecute or convict another person for that offence, but fails, without reasonable excuse, to disclose that information as soon as it is practicable to do so to a member of An Garda Síochána.

The reporting obligations under the Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012 are in addition to the reporting obligations under Children First National Guidance 2017 and the Children First Act, 2015.