Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I too want to apologise as I will not be here for the main session with the Department. I have one issue for the clerk and we can deal with it on another day. I was going through old files to do with protected disclosures and the rules around them. A letter came to the Committee of Public Accounts from the Secretary General of the Department of Education and Skills, dated 12 June 2018. The references is No. 1386 B and would have been raised at the meeting on 21 June 2018. We can discuss this matter on another day but perhaps we could circulate it to members and have a chat about it. In the last paragraph of the letter, the Secretary General seems to indicate that protected disclosures in certain instances cannot be retrospective whereas that would not be my understanding of the law. I have three questions I would like the Committee of Public Accounts to write to him on. First, was the response in the letter a direct legal opinion? If it was a legal opinion, would he be prepared to give us a copy of that legal opinion? It does not sit with my understanding of protected disclosures. When we brought in the Act in 2014, it was most unusual in that it was designed to be specifically retrospective, whereas most legislation could not be retrospective, as I understand it. I am looking for those clarifications based on that letter. As I said, I was doing some work on protected disclosures and I came across this. I would like that clarified, if possible.