802. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for Education and Youth whether her Department has examined the relationship between school bullying, educational exclusion and long-term economic outcomes for LGBTQ+ people; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42069/26]

Cineáltas: Action Plan on Bullying was published on 1st December 2022. Cineáltas is my department’s whole-education approach to preventing and addressing bullying behaviour in schools.

Cineáltas is dedicated to the prevention and addressing of bullying behaviour including cyber bullying, racist bullying, gender identity bullying and sexual harassment, among other areas, in schools. It is centred on a child rights-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 behaviour in our schools.

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

Implementation of Cineáltas is well advanced. The third Implementation report for Cineáltas, which provides an update on the implementation of Cineáltas during 2025 will be published shortly.

One of the more significant actions under Cineáltas was to update the 2013 Anti-Bullying Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary Schools. This action has been completed with the publication, on 19 June 2024, of Bí Cineálta: Procedures to Prevent and Address Bullying Behaviour for Primary and Post-Primary Schools. These updated procedures were developed in collaboration with the education partners, including the National Parents Council, and are heavily informed by the views of children and young people, parents, school staff, Board of Management members and the wider education community.

The Bí Cineálta procedures are centred on a child rights-based approach and support a partnership approach where all members of the school community work together to prevent and address bullying behaviour. The procedures have been updated to take account of gender identity bullying, cyberbullying, racist bullying, sexist bullying, and sexual harassment. They support schools to develop clear strategies to prevent and address these bullying behaviours. Bí Cineálta recognises that LGBTQ+ students may be more at risk of experiencing bullying behaviour. Accordingly, schools are advised under the updated procedures to tailor their preventative strategies to include such at-risk groups. The Bí Cineálta procedures have been implemented all in schools since the beginning of the 2025/2026 school year.

School attendance is essential to support children and young people’s academic achievement, wellbeing, and long-term outcomes.

Since the inception of the Education (Welfare) Act, 2000, schools are obliged to report on school attendance. Student Absence Reports (SAR) are submitted by schools twice a year to Tusla for those students absent from school for a cumulative total of 20 days or more.

Absences are categorised into illness, urgent family reason, holiday, suspended, other, and unexplained. Annual Attendance Reports (AAR) are submitted by schools at the end of the school year and provide four pieces of data in respect of all students enrolled in the school; total days lost by all students, total students absent for 20 or more days, total students suspended, and total students expelled at the school level.

The department’s Inspectorate recently published Perspectives on Bullying (2025) which presents the findings from a national online study of 3,949 children and young people attending primary, post-primary and special schools. Of these participants, 117 identified their gender as ‘prefer not to say’ or ‘other’. For analytical purposes, these gender categories were combined. It is important to note that the survey collected information on gender categories and not sexual orientation.

The survey did not examine educational attainment or long-term economic outcomes. However, the findings provide valuable insights into the experiences of gender-diverse young people and their exposure to bullying behaviour in school settings.

The survey findings indicated that students who identified their gender as ‘other’ were at a significantly higher risk of experiencing exclusion. This aligns with wider research showing that students who identify outside binary gender categories are more likely to experience relational victimisation and social marginalisation.

Approximately one in six of the students who responded to the survey (15.5%) reported that they had been bullied in the previous twelve months. While the gender gap between girls (16%) and boys (14%) was relatively slight, students who identified as ‘other’ gender reported significantly higher rates (28%).

Students who identified as ‘other’ gender were less likely to indicate that they felt happy (56%) than boys (81%) and girls (75%). Students who identified as ‘other’ gender were more likely to report that feeling safe was only sometimes or not true (27%, compared to 13% of boys and girls).

Students who identified as ‘other’ gender reported the highest levels of physical bullying at 38% (compared to boys - 32% and girls - 14%).

Students who identified as ‘other’ gender also reported higher levels of bias-based bullying, namely bullying behaviour based on perceived membership of specific social groups. They were more likely than boys or girls to report being bullied because they were perceived as different (54% vs 18%–24%), or because of their appearance (54% vs 35%), or because of who they were (42% vs 17% 19%).

A consistent theme emerging from the report is the need for schools to implement the requirements of the Bí Cineálta Procedures. The procedures require schools to s explicitly address cultural and identity-based bullying behaviour as part of their measures to create a supportive and respectful environment.

The next annual report, Perspectives on Bullying (2026), will include a focused consideration of the experiences of students with diverse sexual orientations and/or gender identities in school environments, with particular attention to factors that support belonging, inclusion and positive school experiences. An in-depth analysis of the experiences of these students will provide deeper insight into effective practices that contribute to supportive and inclusive school communities.

Under Cineáltas, my department also provides annual funding to Belong To, in support of their annual Stand-Up Awareness campaign. The ‘Being LGBT in School’ resource is currently under review by Maynooth University. This work is expected to be completed over the coming months. On receipt, my department will consider the appropriate next steps.