Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ms Morgan mentioned Transparency International Ireland and others, so perhaps we need to look at there being resources and funding. We do not want what we so often had in Ireland where civil society organisations end up setting the good practice and doing the work. It is important that there would be funding strands to allow people act independently, and in some cases maybe for Transparency International Ireland. We know that sometimes whistleblowers will work together. Especially in the case of a large organisation, you may get a group.

There was a question of there being some difficulty, leaving aside the compensation case which really is that question the Chair put very strongly around the absolute failure to deliver compensation. This is literally a very bare and nominal compensation for the harm suffered by whistleblowers. It is also a question of supports for whistleblowers, including counselling supports and access to other supports. There was a conversation, which I am sure the witnesses followed, in our other sessions around the difficulties even getting interim support, which is something people have sometimes had to access to and again that has been inadequate. I want to press that I think that is one thing that will need to be stronger and we will need to come back to it, especially in regard to the ongoing case on that, and that question of resourcing for civil society.

Could the witnesses come back in around the non-disclosure agreement, NDA, and the confidentiality piece? That was the question of the signal that making a protected disclosure is not constrained. This actually related to another key issue that the Bar Council highlighted around the concern that people would not think that this applied to them. I refer to the definition of the reporting person being a worker. There has been a signal that there is a plan to interpret it in a certain way but one of the cohorts was board members, volunteers or applicants to an organisation, a school parents' association member or whoever it might be. There was concern here, and the witnesses might comment on how they plan to address that definition of "worker" as the reporting person and the need to maybe expand that definition. Linked to that was my point around the NDA piece or the confidentiality clause for a board member and so forth, and that people be very clearly assured in the law that they are in the right line on that.

The specific focus on the areas of discretion under the EU directive was mentioned. I will not ask the witnesses to go through all of them but they could highlight some of the decisions made in respect of discretionary aspects of the EU directive, and maybe outline why they were made. That would help us to understand the choices, and it seems they had their own internal process in regard to the discretionary components.