Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

Ba mhaith liom mo chuid ama a roinnt leis an Seanadóir Mullen. Ba mhaith liom tacaíocht a thabhairt don rún atá curtha chun tosaí ag Páirtí an Lucht Oibre agus ba mhaith liom labhairt fa dhá pháirt den rún, an reachtaíocht maidir le whistleblowers' protection agus faoin Acht a bhaineann le freedom of information. These are the specific matters I wish to address. Regarding political lobbying, at the time of the Companies Act 1990, the banks used their influence to ensure they were exempt from provisions that prohibited loans to companies' directors. I spoke on this previously when the Minister of State was in the Chamber. We saw how this measure was used by banks.

The reference to political lobbying in this motion is important. Legislation along the lines of the False Claims Act in the US is urgently needed in Ireland. This Act contains strong whistleblower legislation and provides incentives to report fraud. Since 1986, when the Act was established, it has returned over $20 billion to the American people. The False Claims Act is about far more than money. It is about discouraging fraud and changing the corporate culture. Under the Act, those who knowingly submit or cause another to submit false claims for the repayment of government funds are liable for three times the government's damages plus civil penalties. The unique aspect of this Act is that it contains whistleblower provisions called qui tam, a legal mechanism that allows citizens with evidence of fraud to sue on behalf of the Government to recover funds that have been stolen. The whistleblower may be awarded a proportion of the funds recovered, typically between 15% and 25%. It excludes tax fraud and, while it has been used to tackle fraud in defence contracts, in recent years most actions have centred on health care fraud.

Some of the scenarios are important for this State and a similar Act would be beneficial, given the growth of the private hospital sector, which remains completely unregulated. These hospitals will be licensed but it will apply to public hospitals first, meaning that private hospitals will be unregulated. Contracts have been awarded by the HSE to companies such as Quest, which has the contract for cervical cancer testing and which was obliged to pay over $250 million to the US Government in criminal and civil fines when the HSE had given it a clean bill of health.

The whistleblower legislation called for in this motion is timely. It is well beyond the time when we should have had that legislation. Where doctors engaged in whistle blowing, such as Dr. Gupta's complaints at the treatment of breast cancer patients in Barrington's Hospital, it has been ignored. Legislation is important to protect those who want to provide information but also to incentivise those who have information. If the incentive is there, they might give the information.

The motion refers to the Freedom of Information Act. We only have to look at the report of the Information Commissioner, Ms Emily O'Reilly, where recommendations were made about freedom of information. The report called for a number of actions to be dealt with by the Government but these went unaddressed. They included that fees for internal reviews of freedom of information decisions and appeals to her office be brought into line with other jurisdictions that do not charge or have a nominal charge, that such fees be returned in the event of a successful appeal to a public body decision, that some of the amendments made to the Freedom of Information Act in 2003 be removed, particularly those relating to Government records and the fact that the definition of Government was too wide. It was also recommend that the Freedom of Information Act apply to all records of the Health and Safety Authority, whose enforcement records were removed from the scope of the Act in 2005. The Information Commissioner has called on all new State bodies to come under the scope of freedom of information legislation as soon as they are established. Perhaps the Minister of State can clarify that the Freedom of Information Act will apply immediately to NAMA, which will be set up as a State body. This will place a major burden on taxpayers and transparency in this body is essential if it is ever to gain the confidence of the Irish people. I support this motion and welcome the fact the Labour Party tabled it.