Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Deputy has encapsulated the position. It is a graded level of disclosure. While I believe, and it should be encouraged, that the vast bulk of the initial reporting of wrongdoing should be to the employer within the workplace, there should be a mechanism to allow a whisteblower to go beyond that, either if he is not listened to or if no action is taken on foot of it. The whole structure is a graduated scheme. I believe there is a relatively low threshold of reasonable belief in respect of disclosing matters without any particular burden of proof being required. To go further to an external disclosure - this is the model used in the UK and elsewhere - one ratchets up slightly the requirement that one believes it to be substantially true. It is not a high threshold that one believes it to be substantially true. To match the gradation required of the legislation, it is important that there is a stepped approach as one broadens the accusation, because it will not always be true, but certainly one should believe it to be substantially true before taking it outside the workplace. Although our entire focus, rightly, is on ensuring that somebody who perceives wrongdoing is fully protected, we must provide for a situation where malicious harm cannot be encouraged. A requirement simply to enjoy the protections of the Bill, that one believes it to be substantially true, is a relatively low threshold to bring a charge of some description, outside the remit of one's employer.