Mr. Philip Brennan:

The main changes are with regard to prescribed persons and also the introduction of the new protected disclosures office in the Office of the Ombudsman. As I said in my opening statement, it depends hugely on how much resourcing and expertise is placed into those areas and what capability they are given to independently investigate these issues themselves or refer them to others for independent investigation. The more steps there are the better but what cannot happen is a dilution in the provisions that are already in place. I mentioned in my opening statement my concern that at the moment there are new restraints proposed on disclosures to Ministers which might make it much more difficult for a worker to qualify to make a disclosure to a Minister. That needs to be looked at. We need to ensure that all the provisions at whatever level, and the best level to make a disclosure, if possible, is at a worker to manager level. Forget about Ministers, Secretaries General, or managing directors; the culture you need to encourage is that people, when they are concerned about something as part of their daily work, feel that they can go to their manager and raise it. That should be the end of it. They might never mention the words "protected disclosure". Where the problems arise, and where the protection is needed, is when penalisation in some shape or other is introduced. Everyone has spoken about culture. It is really about trying to create a culture that people who raise issues and concerns should be regarded positively. They do positive things for the organisation they work for rather than being people out to cause trouble.