MINISTER FOR EDUCATION Norma Foley has said that “all of the young people” involved in the attack of a young boy in Navan “do attend school” and that disciplinary procedures “will be matter for the Board of Management”.

A group of boys were involved in the attack on one of their peers. 

The victim of the assault was taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda on Monday afternoon to receive treatment for serious facial injuries. 

“I think we are all conscious that whilst it didn’t happen in school, all the young people involved do attend school and yes that school does have their own disciplinary proceedures. It will be a matter for the Board of Management,” Foley told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland. 

“They are also … very cognisant of the fact that there is a Garda investigation. I think we must allow that to take its natural course as well,” she said. 

Foley condemned the attack, saying people across society have been “shocked and appalled” by the incident. 

She confirmed that there will be psychologists available to offer support to the victim as he prepares to return to school. 

The boy is “keen to return to school in the coming days”, Foley said. 

“It’s going to be on a step-by-step basis for whatever the needs of the young person might be that they will be appropriately met by the school,” she said. 

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar yesterday said that he was appalled at the attack and that he would be reaching out to the family of the teenager.

“It seems to me that a young man was was targeted, essentially because he’s 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,” Varadkar said. 

Tánaiste Micheál Martin said that it was “stomach churning”.

Martin said that both the Oireachtas and the country at large are “sickened and disturbed” by it, and sympathising with the victim and his family. 

“I hope all the resources he needs to recover are made available,” he added. 

There has also been calls for social media companies to remove videos of the incident that are circulating online. 

“I’m very aware that this particular video has been copied more than five million times right across so many different platforms. It makes it very, very difficult for it to be removed when it has been forwarded on so many different time,” Foley said this morning. 

“We would be urging people not to share it, not to share content of that nature online.” 

Includes reporting by Eimer McAuley and Tadgh McNally