Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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342. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will ensure that mental health and well-being as well as physical health is enshrined in Irish employment law; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31446/14]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The duty to protect persons from impairment of their mental condition as a result of work activities is contained within the Safety Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005. Under this Act employers have responsibility to ensure that all their employees are provided with a safe place to work - this duty extends beyond physical safety. An employer must ensure that no employee, in the carrying out of their work, suffers any distress to the extent that it affects their ability to carry out their work and in any way endangers their own safety or the safety of others.

The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, requires employers to put in place systems of work which protect employees from hazards which could lead to mental or physical ill-health. It places an obligation on employers to risk assess all known hazards, and this includes psychosocial hazards

The protection of workers from all potential risks is fundamental to occupational safety and health legislation, to this end it is a legal requirement for all employers to carry out a risk based assessment of all hazards and risks in any place of work under their control. From the results of this risk assessment, employers are required to complete an operational Safety Statement which outlines the hazards and risks identified in that workplace and control measures put in place to eliminate or reduce them.

Arising from its evaluation of health and safety measures adopted at EU and national level in recent years, the European Commission's new EU Strategic Framework on Health and Safety at Work for the period 2014-2020 has identified a number of key challenges that are common across the European Union and that require further policy action. It has specifically identified the need to consider the impact of changes in work organisation in terms of physical and mental health. The Health and Safety Authority is a collaborating partner in the EU Joint Action Project on Mental Health at Work.