Mr. Pat Keane:

Those points are worth considering.

I will touch on one or two other matters that we considered. Our solution to how a competent authority is designated is the protected disclosures office, given that we recognise that there are a few shortcomings in the way the prescribed person system operates. We have more than 100 prescribed persons, so it can sometimes be confusing for workers to figure out to whom they are supposed to report. This would also clear up a number of the gaps in the provision. The protected disclosures office proposal deals with many of those issues. As I said in reply to Deputy Durkan, this is an area where we examined what other countries did.

Regarding the discretion for prescribed persons to close reports that were minor or repetitive, we had almost universal agreement on that being included.

We have provided for that. The question of measures for support is another. We had a discussion on VAT already. We are considering those ourselves.

The final matter was about penalties. We have been considering that. It is all based on discussions that we have had with the Attorney General about whether there will be criminal penalties in that case. We explored administrative penalties but the Attorney General is of the view that it would be problematic for this type of legislation. Those are the areas under that which I think we can cover.