John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Earlier, Mr. Devitt was giving analysis of what whistleblowers in the private sector thought of the process and how satisfied or not they were. In the public sector, it seems to be quite different, in that there is free use of taxpayers' money and money paid into the State to defend the entity, whether a Department, an agency or a third level institution, whatever it might be. It is this which prolongs the time it takes to deal with it. The State has put in place whistleblower legislation and certain parts of the State turn around and challenge it at every corner and bend, to the extent that the whistleblower is the person who suffers and the wrongdoing continues. It is containment in a highly aggressive way. The State itself is culpable of causing further damage and harm to the individuals concerned and it does not seem to care. This sort of financial muscle on one side takes on an individual and literally blackguards him or her from start to finish and causes a mental breakdown or illness of some sort, and finally the person might give up. How does this get addressed in legislation?

In the context of a whistleblower who has made a protected disclosure and finds himself or herself in that predicament and reaches out to another party for help to highlight the issue, what is the obligation of this other party to support the whistleblower or to do something about it to highlight what is, in effect, further bullying and harassment by the State using the money the State has? Surely there has to be a level playing field for those who find themselves making a protected disclosure as loyal employees.

We have been discussing the make-up of legislation but the practical application of the legislation has caused serious damage to individuals and the State seems to get away with it. We need robust legislation that goes beyond the EU directive, which acknowledges the utter failure of the current legislation in the context of what is happening. Without Transparency International Ireland, and without Mr. Clifford in particular, many whistleblowers would have suffered really badly over a longer period. We need to address what will happen between now, under the current legislation, and a time when we will have new more robust legislation. Whistleblowers are really suffering. They reach out to Members of this House to support them and when they do, they get that support but if it goes up along the chain and they ask a Minister, the Taoiseach or whoever it might be for support, do they have an obligation at least to pay attention to what whistleblower tells them?