Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is a bit confusing. Employee assistance helplines, as we know from dealing with protected disclosures and all of that, should be mandatory and that is why I asked for a list of when they were put in place. We can see that it was done in some institutions in accordance with the timeframe, in some others it was done beforehand, and in others it was done quite late. It is alarming that some institutions were doing it and others were not. That is one issue. The fact it took months for the Department to get this information through the HEA is concerning.

There is another issue. As I understand it, employee assistance helplines are also meant to be the first port of call for people who have issues which could potentially end up being protected disclosures. Having looked at the names of some of the firms involved - this is no commentary on them and they may all have a role in regard to well-being, employee assistance and so on - but I am not sure these organisations can deal with those sorts of issues. I want an inquiry in this regard. We have all the issues in regard to third level institutions and they are in again next week. I want clarity on this issue. If somebody has issues that concern them and which are not necessarily about their well-being but concern what is happening in their workplace corporately, for want of a better phrase, are these the right organisations to be going to? I genuinely do not know. I have a suspicion these are not the organisations that many individuals feel would be able to deal with their concerns.