Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister keeps saying in all her replies to everyone around the House that she cannot interfere in HR matters.

However, if HR and its board of management still do not have the facilities to deal with issues, that is our problem as legislators. We cannot wash our hands of it. Was the Minister aware of the findings of wide-scale harassment reported in a survey by Irish Equity last year? SIPTU arts officer, Karan O'Loughlin, told RTÉ "News At One" that SIPTU went to the Arts Council as early as 2016 to ask it to help SIPTU to deal with the bullying and harassment in the sector by connecting funding to robust anti-bullying procedures, and the Arts Council refused. It says it was not its business. After everything that has transpired over the last two weeks, it is our business to have supports in place so that this does not happen.

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