Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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286. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the extent to which she continues to address the issue of school bullying; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45326/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I launched Cineáltas: Action Plan on Bullying on 1^stDecember 2022. Cineáltas is my Department’s whole-education approach to preventing and addressing bullying in schools.

Cineáltas is dedicated to the prevention and addressing of bullying, cyber bullying, racist bullying, gender identity bullying and sexual harassment, among other areas, in schools.

It is centred on a child right’s based approach and provides a collective vision and clear roadmap for how the whole education community and society can work together to prevent and address bullying in our schools.

Cineáltas incorporates each of the nine components of UNESCO’s Whole Education Approach to prevent and address bullying. It is rooted in four key principles: prevention, support, oversight and community.

My Department launched the Implementation Plan for Cineáltas on 10 April 2023, which is available at gov.ie - Cineáltas: Action Plan on Bullying (www.gov.ie)

The Implementation Plan for Cineáltas commits to implementing each of the 61 actions contained in Cineáltas within a five-year period and sets out timeframes and information about how my Department is going to implement the actions.

One million euro has been provided in 2023 to progress a number of the actions contained in the plan.

An Implementation and Evaluation Group has been established to oversee implementation of the actions. Annual implementation and evaluation reports, informed by feedback from children and young people, parents, school staff, education partners, key stakeholders and relevant agencies, will be published.

Implementation of a number of actions has already progressed. These include the following:

• My Department has established a Student Participation Unit, which will promote the participation of children and young people in the development of department policy, building on its existing work in this area
• An Expert Group has been established to advise my Department on how best the Student Participation Unit can progress its work. Professor Laura Lundy, Professor of Education Law and Children’s Rights at Queen’s University who developed the Lundy Model of children’s participation is chair of this Expert Group
• Work to update the anti-bullying procedures for schools is well underway with Continuous Professional Development and training being developed for all school staff, Board of Management members and parents
• €5 million is being invested to pilot a programme of counselling supports for primary school students. This will serve to support the very positive work which already takes place in the area of wellbeing in schools.