Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The difficulty is that we are seeing a trend. There is a perception that when one passes legislation, the box is ticked. The problem is that the trend suggests that there are cultural issues where whistleblowers are seen as a nuisance and are fought all the way. Several high-profile cases demonstrated this and have put people off coming forward with information that requires to be brought to the attention of the committee and various Departments. Unless there is a cultural change in how whistleblowers are handled, we are going to keep on seeing a repeat of this kind of scenario.