Harris warns colleges to tackle harassment

HIGHER Education Minister Simon Harris has given third- level institutions a reminder that he expects swift action over sexual harassment and bullying.

He also expressed alarm at the scale of such abuse and branded the response of UCD to concerns on this issue a ‘disgrace’.

Responding to queries by Fine Gael TD Bernard Durkan, Mr Harris warned any t hird- l evel colleges planning to be dilatory on this issue that in his ‘first letter to university presidents, I... have requested that they develop and publish, by February 2021, s pecific institutional action plans on tackling sexual violence and harassment’.

He also said he was ‘greatly concerned by the issues of both sexual harassment and bullying that have emerged in respect of both staff and students within higher-education institutions’.

Earlier this year, UCD was widely criticised over i ts procedures for dealing with such matters following a c ourt c ase i n which a colleague was convicted of harassing academic and broadcaster Aoibhinn Ní

Shúilleabháin for a period of two years. Mr Harris warned: ‘In respect of Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, who I have met on two occasions and am in contact with, the way she was treated was absolutely disgraceful.

‘It is clear that in all cases they have not been dealt with properly, and Dr Ní Shúilleabháin’s case is an example.’ He also thanked Dr Ní Shúilleabháin f or speaking publicly about the matter.