Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 74: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will introduce a requirement that bullying as a risk, together with policies and procedures to mitigate that risk, be included in every employer's safety statement as recommended in the report of the Expert Advisory Group on Workplace Bullying published in August 2005. [18338/06]

Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 146: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the reason he has decided that it is necessary to wait on an updated survey of the incidence of workplace bullying, not due to be completed until at least October 2006, before acting to implement the recommendations of the Expert Advisory Group's Report on Workplace Bullying published in August 2005. [18335/06]

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 74 and 146 together.

The Expert Advisory Group's Report on Workplace Bullying was launched and published by me on the 17th August 2005. An important recommendation contained in the Report was that a follow up survey on workplace bullying, similar to that commissioned for the 2001 Report, be conducted as soon as practicable to establish a baseline from which the effectiveness of the new structures and processes would be measured.

This Department issued tenders for the survey and has recently awarded the contract to the successful tenderer. The survey is expected to take about 6 months to complete.

There was not full agreement within the Expert Advisory Group on some of its recommendations. One example of this is the recommendation that bullying should be a mandatory inclusion as a risk in every employer's Safety Statement and that the Health and Safety Authority would be charged with ensuring that this is enforced.

I have already given a commitment to publish the results of the survey, which will be brought to Government along with the Report and the views of the Social Partners and other interested parties, for decision on how best to implement the Report's Recommendations, including that mentioned above.