Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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552. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will outline his progress to date in developing an education stream and-or awareness campaigns in third level education settings that addresses gender based violence and related matters [49500/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Tackling sexual violence and harassment has been and will continue to a particular policy priority for me and my Department. In fact, one of the very first actions I took after my appointment as Minister in 2020 was to write to all publicly funded higher education institutions outlining my commitment to tackling sexual violence and harassment in higher education and requesting that institutions take a number of actions in this area, including the development of institutional action plans on tackling sexual violence and harassment. All publicly-funded institutions now have such action plans in place.

Significant progress has been made regarding the Framework for Consent in Higher Education, since it was first launched in 2019. The Framework aims to ensure the creation of an institutional campus culture which is safe, respectful and supportive. As part of monitoring requirements moving forward, the HEA requires that institutions, in respect of both staff and students, report progress annually on implementation of the Framework for Consent.

My Department has provided support for a number of consent awareness raising and training initiatives in the HEIs, including the:

- NUIG Active Consent Programme;

- UCC Bystander Training;

- Speak Out report and support online platform; and

- The ESHTE Toolkit and It Stops Now Campaign led by the NWC in conjunction with USI.

My Department is also partnering with the Department of Justice and the NUIG Active Consent programme to support the development of an online hub that will provide, for the first time, an integrated, publicly available resource on sexual consent awareness and learning, which will be an important resource for our further and higher education institutions and the wider community.

My Department continues to work closely with the Department of Justice in this key policy area and has provided a number of actions for inclusion in the Third Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence Strategy which my colleague Minister McEntee published in June.

I fully support the core principle underpinning the new strategy that we must take a zero tolerance approach. Everyone is entitled to a safe environment to study and work free from violence and harassment, and that informs the policy approaches and interventions that have been adopted across the sector.

The Deputy will be aware that I launched the reports on the National Surveys of Student and Staff Experiences of Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment in Higher Education back in January. A total of 11,417 responses were analysed (7,901 students and 3,516 staff) and inform the findings. My officials have been working in recent months with the HEA and key stakeholders to review the recommendations contained in these reports and I intend to make a further announcement on the plans to implement these recommendations shortly.

The creation of an institutional campus culture in each of our higher education institutions which is safe, respectful and supportive, is a key priority for me. I will continue to lead the way on institutional change, championing the changes required to achieve a cultural norm where bullying and sexual harassment are not tolerated.