The extent of bullying in schools will be measured for the first time under a new initiative aimed at tackling the issue.
A national data base will be set up by the Department of Education to collect information anonymously.
Under existing guidelines schools are obliged to record incidents internally.
The strategy will focus on tackling harassment on gender identity grounds for the first time.
According to a report in the Irish Independent this morning the extent of the scale of bullying in schools will be measured for the first time under the Department's action plan.
A national database will be developed to allow for the collection of data to underpin an annual report on scale of the problem.
Anti-bullying procedures for schools will be updated to take account of gender-identity bullying, cyber-bullying, racist bullying, sexist bullying and sexual harassment.
The procedures will also provide guidance as to when an incident of bullying becomes a child protection concern.
Schools will be expected to regularly review their records of alleged incidents to consider what measures could be taken to prevent recurrence.
