Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he is going to “reach out” to the family of a 14-year-old boy who was subjected to an unprovoked assault by a group of teenage boys in Navan.
The Taoiseach said on Thursday he intends to contact the family of the boy to express his support and sympathy.
“I’m really appalled at what we saw happening in Navan. It seems to me that a young man was targeted, essentially because he was different and was subjected to a very violent assault.
“And what’s worse still is people felt the need to video it and then put it online. It takes a particular type of person to post videos of people with the purpose of humiliating them, a particularly nasty type of individual,” Mr Varadkar said.
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The school’s patron body, Louth Meath Education and Training Board (LMETB) confirmed that school disciplinary polices and procedures are being implemented and An Garda Síochána is “addressing issues surrounding the incident”.
It said psychological services are being made available to students at the school, along with guidance and counselling staff.
“For the avoidance of doubt the incident did not occur on school grounds but rather occurred on a green area in an adjacent housing estate,” a LMETB spokesman added.
Minster for Norma Foley has described the assault as “nothing short of shocking” and said psychological supports were being made available to students.
Speaking in the Dáil, Mr Varadkar said: “My sympathies go to young man’s family. I’m going to reach out to them myself now.
“I think there’s a real issue here of parents with parental responsibility. Those people, those young people are easily identified. Those parents know who they are, and they need to act and take responsibility for this as well.
“When it comes to social media companies, there’s responsibility there too. We have the new Coimisiún na Meán [media regulator] established. [Minister for Media] Catherine Martin has done enormous work on that, and that will strengthen our powers to require social media platforms to take down content like this quickly, to suspend accounts of people who disseminate it and also very strong fines that we can impose on social media companies [for breaches].”
Earlier, Tánaiste Micheál Martin said social media companies should remove videos of violent incidents “immediately” after they are posted online and the rapidity at which they do it “at times has to be questioned”.
The Tánaiste was responding to Sinn Féin deputy leader Pearse Doherty in the Dáil on Thursday, who said there had been a rise in young people orchestrating such attacks and filming them for public online consumption.
“It is clear that social media companies are not doing enough to root this violent content from their platforms and that was very clear over the last 24 hours,” Mr Doherty said.
The Donegal TD said social media companies had a responsibility to ensure that such content was “speedily removed from their platforms”. He also asked when would the office of the Online Safety Commissioner be up and running to ensure online content of this nature would be removed immediately.
In response, Mr Martin said he and the country were “sickened and very disturbed” by the “shocking attack” on the schoolboy in Navan and the “random, violent nature of it” as well as the videoing of it.
“There is absolutely no place in our society for such violence,” he said.
Minister for Justice Simon Harris said he had spoken to the family of the schoolboy assaulted and condemned the “unacceptable” attack.
A spokeswoman for the Minister said Mr Harris spoke to the family on Wednesday night and shared his horror at the very brutal attack the young man suffered.
“There is an ongoing Garda investigation under way. However, it is clear the young man suffered significant injuries from a co-ordinated attack. That is unacceptable and should not happen to any person,” Mr Harris said.
The family has described the incident as “horrific and wrong”.
One member of his family said: “No 14-year-old should be beaten like that for anything at all, especially because of who he is. He is only a child and it happened across the road from a family member, where he was trying to get to.
“We are shocked, horrified and upset at what can happen in this day and age. It was a number of people against one boy, while others filmed it and posted it online. That is horrific and wrong.” They added that they hoped no other child “suffers like this”.
The assault took place on Monday at around 2.30pm. The teenager suffered concussion, broken teeth and extensive bruising in the attack, which also left him with a shoe print on his forehead. The incident was filmed and shared online.
The young man was only yards away from a family member’s house to where he tried to crawl to safety amid blows from a group of teenagers.
Gardaí are appealing to those with information to contact Navan Garda station.
Speaking on Thursday, Independent Cllr Nick Killian, a member of the LMETB, said: “People are just appalled, really shocked by it, that young people could do that to each other. And that’s been the general reaction.
“That young man could have been seriously hurt and seriously injured and left with life threatening injuries. And people have to realise that that type of behaviour is just unacceptable,” Mr Killian said.
“The schools themselves are working hard to try and point out that situations like this are unacceptable. And the vast majority of students obviously take heed and take care,” Mr Killian added.
