Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 23:

In page 19, between lines 15 and 16, to insert the following:“22.Not less than two years and every 12 months thereafter following the commencement of this Act, all public bodies shall prepare and submit to the Minister a report relevant to the Act including but not limited to—

(a) guidelines developed,
(b) training conducted with employees,
(c) data collected on the number of disclosures, detected or alleged wrongdoing contained therein and type of action taken in response to disclosures made to the public body pursuant to this legislation and the action taken, and
(d) any other information as shall be requested by the Minister.”.

The amendment is to do with accountability and the application of this legislation by public bodies. One of the extraordinary things that happened, among a whole series of extraordinary things, on one occasion when the former Garda Commissioner presented before the Committee of Public Accounts was that he was asked by myself and others in a general sense to outline for us the number of disclosures to the then confidential recipient. While we were not asking for the detail or anything like that, he refused on that occasion to answer the question and said he did not regard it as an appropriate question to be asked, much less answered.
That turn of events underscores a need for a couple of things, the first of which is for the system to know the volume and extent of reports being made and also to have some level of oversight in terms of the treatment of those reports when they come forward. The idea is not for the Minister to scrutinise or immerse himself in every twist and turn of every report that is made but for there to be oversight in respect of the activity happening under the protection of this legislation. Given the sea change that is required in many institutions in order for whistleblowers to come forward and for matters to be dealt with in a way that is transparent and satisfactory to the Minister and the general public, that will require oversight and reporting mechanisms such as the one I have set out in this amendment.