Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Senator Ruane yet again on a really fine piece of work. It is utterly intolerable that any bullying or harassment should happen in a third level college. Wherever there is a power imbalance, systems and procedures must be in place to ensure that those who would exploit their positions are curtailed in the extreme. It is utterly unacceptable for non-disclosure agreements, NDAs, to be used in these sorts of contexts. I can appreciate the sensitivities but there are ways and means of dealing with those, not the least of which is tackling such a culture at the very start. In the past year, the Minister has declared zero tolerance for bullying and harassment and he has set in motion a series of measures to ensure that campuses are safe places. The mandatory requirement to record and report statistics on bullying and harassment complaints not only gives us a basis to gather metrics to educate us on how best to target supports and anti-bullying measures, but also gives us a measure of how the colleges themselves are engaging in the subject. From the general data protection regulation, GDPR, end of things, I have always felt that if you do not have a disclosure or complaint, you are not really managing the system properly. I laud the colleges that record statistics regarding complaints as being actively engaged in dealing with the culture.

On sexual harassment, we absolutely need to move to a position where people feel safe. It should never ever occur. I wrestle with the concept of teaching consent. I absolutely 100% support it but, on the other hand, there should be a basic floor level of human dignity and respect. Consent should not need to be taught. Respecting other people, the autonomy of their bodies and how they are spoken about, including our Fianna Fáil colleagues, in every possible way shows basic human respect. It is therefore shocking that people have to be taught it but, nonetheless, that is happening and I appreciate what has been put in place.

When it comes to bullying and harassment, in an employment setting, the basis of grievance procedures is set out in SI 146 of 2000. Under that statutory instrument, if an employer does not adhere to the proper procedures, which are objective and which can be looked at objectively, the presumption is always against that employer regardless of the substantive complaint and of whether the employer made the right decision in sacking somebody. I urge the putting place of a similar system at the end of the survey, when we have statistics, so that if people make a complaint against a college and if there is not a transparent system for investigating that complaint, the presumption will be against the college resulting in automatic redress for the students. In employment terms, the High Court has ruled that taking someone's job away is the same as taking away their liberty. To undermine a student's ability to achieve his or her full potential in university is just as detrimental. Students go into third level environments to ensure that they will have a future. They invest. There is a duty of care on the part of their third level colleges that should be discharged fully and transparently.

Last year, I brought the case of a family whom I was supporting to the Minister's office and his office supported them fantastically and was great in doing so. A student's mother had come to me. He had made a complaint against his lecturer regarding the manner in which the lecturer was treating him in observations on projects and on the work he was doing. The lecturer retaliated. The matter was investigated by the very people to whom the complaint was made in a manner that was utterly replete with conflicts of interest. The situation was looked at and examined in a subjective way, which was most appalling. By any employment law standards, the findings would have been thrown out. The Workplace Relations Commission would have had a great time with it. The only choice this young person was left with was to go to someone else. He was promised an external examiner and a whole heap of other things but none of it was put in place. There was no effective objective third party to whom he could bring his complaint. At the end of all of the work the Minister is doing, the surveys and so on, a system like that will be needed. I know we have the Ombudsman and that there is a requirement to have procedures but we need a statutory instrument. We need some sort of measure of this kind which is utterly objective and which would mean that the presumption is against the party holding the power if those procedures are not fully adhered to.

I will mention apprenticeships. There has been an impressive ramping up of apprenticeships. We saw an agony aunt-type letter to the papers this week regarding a young person who is again in a powerless position in a culture of misogyny, sexual comments and lewd remarks and who is feeling disempowered. We need a similar provision in that regard, although this case is in an employment context so there are systems in place. I thank the Minister for all the work he has done in the last year and I say "well done" to Senator Ruane.