Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support my former colleagues in St. Angela's College in Sligo, who are on strike today. I believe this strike has been brought about as a result of a failure to engage in discussion with respect to the takeover of St. Angela's College by NUIG.

The issue I rise to speak on is one I had hoped I had put behind me many years ago and one I hoped I would never again have to face but late last night, on my way back to Dublin, I got a telephone call which was probably one of the most disturbing calls I have had in a long time. It related to the suicide of a person. The "where" is irrelevant, but it is largely believed that this person took their life because of bullying in the workplace. We hear so much about bullying in schools and we forget that bullying in the workplace is now at epidemic levels in the country. Paragraph 5 of the Industrial Relations Act 1990 describes bullying. There is a huge difference between robust management and bullying in the workplace. We hear of people taking their own lives. I have looked into the eyes of the cowardly bully who usually takes on the strongest people among the staff with a view to breaking them down because if they are broken down, the staff are broken down.

There is within the criminal justice system the legislation entitled Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997. I believe that where bullying in the workplace takes place, we are not talking about children. We are talking about adults who set out deliberately to destroy an individual. I am calling for a debate here with the Minister for Justice and Equality, at the Leader's earliest convenience, to allow us to discuss bullying and how it is destroying workplaces. We have statistics that indicate that in the United Kingdom up to 50% of employees are victims of bullying in the workplace. I am not saying that this is a top-down problem. Bullying in the workplace can be peer to peer or bottom up or top down. It does not matter, but it is the most serious issue.I do not believe that the Houses of the Oireachtas have dealt with this issue before, when we talk about adults. I ask the Leader to arrange, as a matter of urgency and immediately after the break, for the Minister to attend to discuss this issue, particularly with reference to Non-Fatal Offences Against the Persons Act 1997 matter.