Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 30 June 2004
209 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Education and Science the number of incidents of school bullying reported in the past 12 months; the action taken arising therefrom; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19790/04]
View answerSchools are not required to report incidents of bullying to my Department. It is the responsibility of individual school management authorities to implement effective policies to counter bullying in schools. My Department has issued guidelines on countering bullying behaviour to all primary and post-primary schools. The purpose of the guidelines is to assist schools in devising school based measures to prevent and deal with instances of bullying behaviour and to increase awareness of the problem among school management authorities, staff, pupils andparents.
