Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Let me go to the particular item of correspondence, No. 768. There is a reply from the Department of Justice and Equality. Essentially, this is one of the first issues in terms of how to deal with a protected disclosure in the Prison Service. The person involved was not happy and used the legislation to get an external reviewer to examine the case. The external reviewer is a retired District Court judge who has issued a very comprehensive report to the Prison Service and to the individual concerned. The individual has taken his case to the WRC and there are difficulties regarding the use of the aforementioned report at the WRC. I think we have no option but to wait until the WRC is finished its work. I have to say that the individual is a constituent of mine, I am familiar with the case and have actually met the gentleman. As I said before, there is a lot of learning to be done by public bodies in terms of how to deal with protected disclosures. They seem to be only beginning to become aware of the issues involved. Does anyone else have a view on this? I do not think we can do anything until the WRC deals with the individual in the Prison Service and that will be in November. We will ask to be kept informed on that particular issue. I am disappointed that we cannot do anything sooner but we cannot really interfere if the matter is with the WRC.

In terms of the statements and accounts received since our last meeting, there are only four on the list, all of which received a clear audit opinion. First on the list is the Local Government Fund, which is the central fund which finances part of the expenditure of local authorities. As I understand it, that was €1.9 billion. A big chunk of money goes in there from-----