Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to begin by thanking the Cathaoirleach, the Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil, the Oireachtas HR section and others for taking up a key recommendation of the Oireachtas Women's Parliamentary Caucus and commissioning a confidential dignity and respect in the parliamentary workplace survey of all staff and Members in these Houses. This very important survey went live yesterday. It will uncover positives as well as bringing into the open issues relating to dignity and respect in the workplace which exist but may remain under the radar, especially for staff members, interns and others. It will signal action to be taken on those issues by this House.It brings this House into the mainstream of good human resources practice commonplace in other workplaces. The results of a similar survey carried out in Westminster made for grim reading. The survey found that one in five people working in Westminster had experienced or witnessed sexual harassment or inappropriate behaviour in the past year - that was in 2017. A Unite official described a toxic and dysfunctional relationship between some British MPs, peers and staff. Almost 20% of employees reported being bullied by their bosses, 58% suffered from stress, 36% reported having anxiety and 17% reported suffering from depression. Those findings are stark and I sincerely hope we do not make similar findings here. It is important that all Members of the Houses engage with the survey so that we surface what is actually going on, warts and all. The survey sends an important message of zero tolerance of bullying and harassment in any form in these Houses and of the need for dignity and respect in how we work together in these Houses. I urge all Senators to encourage their staff to complete the survey and to complete the survey themselves, as I intend to do later today. I call on the powers that be who brought us this survey to commit to the full findings being published. Moreover, I call on the Leader to commit to a debate in the House on the aggregated and anonymised results of the survey findings once it is complete so that the survey is not buried if the results are not to our liking.