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

The Minister may be aware that I have introduced my own Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill 2021. To be fair to the then Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, he took on board many of the recommendations from this committee and recommendations that I put forward as well. However, I was always very clear with the Minister that I still had some serious concerns regarding some failings in the new legislation. One concern was with regard to making the legislation retrospective and the impact that has on people making protected disclosures. We have heard very powerful testimonies from witnesses in this committee of the very real-life impact that making protective disclosure had on their lives. I had drafted an amendment to do this, which I felt was probably one of the most crucial aspects to do. However, it was not taken on board at the time. If the Minister is ever looking to amend the legislation again, I will 100% be bringing that forward to him again.

Another issue I had been raising was the provision of free legal aid and psychological counselling services to whistleblowers. I see there is an estimated increase of 42% under subhead A15. Is all of that financing going on the setting up of the office? Are there some additional moneys available there? Is that something the Minister would consider with regard to whistleblowers? At the end of the day, we as a society have a huge debt to these people because of their ability to come out and speak truth to power and bring some of the scandals that we have seen in the past to light.