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Education Minister Ruairi Quinn and Children&Youth Affairs Minister Frances Fitzgerald today launched a new Action Plan on Bullying.

The Plan sets out twelve actions to help prevent and tackle bullying in primary and second level schools. These proposed actions build on the excellent work that is already underway in many schools to prevent and tackle bullying.

The report makes it clear that preventing and tackling bullying requires support from parents and wider society and is not a problem schools can solve alone.

Minister Quinn has ring-fenced €500,000 to support the implementation of the Action Plan on Bullying in 2013.

Among the twelve actions recommended by the working group are proposals to:

• Support a media campaign focused on cyber bullying specifically targeted at young people as part of Safer Internet Day 2013;

• Establish a new national anti-bullying website;

• Begin development immediately of new national anti-bullying procedures for all schools. These will include an anti-bullying policy template and a template for recording incidents of bullying in schools. These should be in place by the start of the next school year;

• Devise a co-ordinated plan of training for parents and for school boards of management;

• Provide Department of Education and Skills support for the Stand Up! Awareness Week Against Homophobic Bullying organised by BeLonG To Youth Services;

• Review current Teacher Education Support Service provision to identify what training and Continuous Professional Development teachers may need to help them effectively tackle bullying

Minister Quinn also announced that the Department of Education & Skills will be supporting a revision of the Stay Safe Programme for primary schools. The revised programme will address new forms of risk, including cyber bullying, and incorporate new research and best practice in the area of safeguarding children as well as changes and developments in the educational context in terms of policies, provision and curriculum.

Minister Quinn said,

Bullying can have a devastating effect on our children and young people that can sometimes end in tragedy. That is why this Action Plan is so important. I broadly accept the proposed actions and now want to see implementation begin immediately, alongside other related initiatives, including the new Well-Being in Post-Primary Schools: Guidelines for Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention (2013) which I will launch later this week.

Minister Fitzgerald said,

Today is a significant step in the Government’s absolute commitment to address the serious impact which bullying continues to have on our children. This Action Plan on Bullying is the first of its kind in Ireland and highlights the critical role of schools in dealing with bullying. Bullying is not limited to classrooms, so we must have a broader approach. That means making sure that wherever young people are, they are protected by strong anti-bullying guidelines and strong practice.

Bullying must be named and it must and will be challenged, and when it expresses itself in newer forms, it must and will be challenged there, too.

Read the full press release here.