Mr. John Devitt:

I was going to add that. I agree that protections should be extended to local authority members, and to Members of the Oireachtas, perhaps, and members of the Judiciary, so they would be able to avail of the civil protections, be protected against civil liability for making a protected disclosure and be entitled to safeguards regarding their identity and confidentiality if they are making a protected disclosure. Case law is emerging in the UK which has defined members of the judiciary as workers as well. While not all workers will be treated the same or be entitled, for example, to bring a case before the Workplace Relations Commission, no more than a member of the Defence Forces would be able to avail of the same rights as somebody working in the Department of Defence, we could extend existing civil remedies and protections to other categories of worker and make it safer for those to speak up too.