Dr. Lauren Kierans:

If I may, I will answer the first two questions as they relate to the research I conducted on case law under the Protected Disclosures Act between 15 July 2014 and 15 July 2020. These were the decisions I was able to locate. I assessed the successful-unsuccessful rate under the Act of 156 cases. Of the successful claims, which amounted to 12%, or 19 claims, eight were successful on the grounds the employee was found to have been dismissed wholly or mainly for having made a protected disclosure, nine were successful on the grounds they had been penalised because of or in retaliation for having made a protected disclosure, while two were in respect of interim relief applications before the Circuit Court, whereby an employee can file a claim for his or her dismissal before the hearing of the substantive unfair dismissal claim.

As for the unsuccessful cases, I must correct the record. I stated that 30% were unsuccessful on procedural grounds but I should have said 30 cases, or 22%. A total of 107 cases, or 78%, were unsuccessful on their merits. Breaking that down further, I found that 45% of the cases were unsuccessful because there was no protected disclosure, 53% were unsuccessful because there was either no unfair dismissal or no penalisation, while two cases before the High Court were unsuccessful on the grounds they were appeals on a point of law from the Labour Court to the High Court where it was found that no error in law had been made by the Labour Court. In the majority of unsuccessful claims, therefore, it was found the employee had not been dismissed or penalised for having made a protected disclosure, while a total of 45% were unsuccessful because it was found there had been no protected disclosure.