Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Taking on board the views of all the people who have contacted us, we all can be in agreement that it is extremely important that the legislation be retrospective.

We know from the discussions we have had here and, as I mentioned, the harrowing stories people have, how important it is for this to be retrospective and how much people have lost as a result of doing work in the interest of the public good. I am happy that we will discuss it further on Report Stage and see if that can be moved on. I understand that the Minister has stated he will engage further with the Attorney General but anything that can be done to ensure it is retrospective needs to be done because it is so important that we protect those people who did what they did and who put themselves, their families and their livelihoods on the line to blow a whistle and make those protected disclosures.