John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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297. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform further to Parliamentary Question No. 96 of 25 June 2015, the reason for the delay in responding to employees (details supplied) of the Office of Public Works who are based in County Kilkenny in their claim of bullying; the cost of the Baker, Tilly Ryan and Glennon report; the reason it was not acted upon; his views that the Office of Public Works is acting within existing legislation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34290/15]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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All employee disputes are treated under the relevant grievance/disciplinary/Positive Working Environment codes which are agreed centrally by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform with General Council/ Joint Industrial Council. Where cases escalate beyond those local procedures, they can be referred to the Workplace Relations process i.e. Rights Commissioner, Labour Court, Equality Tribunal etc. In the cases referenced, the OPW could not progress the investigations while the Rights Commissioner decisions were pending.

These two cases were considered by the Rights Commissioner on procedural matters. One decision has issued which instructed the OPW to proceed with a review despite the claimants objections on that case and that review will commence shortly. The decision of the Rights Commissioner in the second case is deferred, subject to exhausting the internal procedures, and this Office has been in correspondence with the employees’ representative.

Costs of €34,909 have been incurred to date by the Commissioners in relation to investigation services provided by Baker Tilly Ryan Glennon (consultants) on the matter.