Education and Skills: Incidents of School Bullying 4th July 2013

Uimhir:137

Ceist Pharlaiminte

Chun an Aire Oideachais agus Eolaíoctha

To the Minister for Education and Science

To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the total number of incidents of
school bullying including cyber bullying reported to his Department through the
primary and or post-primary sectors in each of the past three years to date;
the extent to which it has been found possible to address the issue to date;
his plans for the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

– Bernard J. Durkan.

* For WRITTEN answer on Wednesday, 3rd July, 2013.
Reference Number: 32520/13

Freagra

Minister Ruairí Quinn

The information requested by the Deputy is not available in my Department as
individual school management authorities are not required to report incidents
of bullying to my Department.

As the Deputy is probably aware, on 29th of January last, Minister Fitzgerald
and I published the Action Plan on Bullying which sets out twelve actions to
help prevent and tackle bullying in primary and second level schools.

As part of the Action Plan, new anti-bullying procedures for all primary and
second level schools are currently in development in consultation with the
education partners. These new procedures will include a specific reference to
cyber bullying and to requirements for noting and reporting bullying incidents.
These will be issued to all schools at the beginning of the next school year.