Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I thank the Minister of State for such a comprehensive analysis of the Labour Party Bill. However, I did not ask about that Bill but about the measures he intended to introduce. By and by, he eventually got around to answering that part of the question by stating that there would be a sectoral approach. Is the Minister aware of the success of the British legislation in this area, known as the Public Interest Disclosures Act 1998? It has spawned a public interest body called Public Concern at Work, which is widely accepted as a very important tool for protecting the public interest in the UK. That public interest group has been recruited by Allied Irish Bank to advise it on procedures, following the damning disclosures about overcharging at that bank that came about because of a whistleblower. Will the Minister consider the urgent need for overarching legislation, similar either to the Labour Party Bill or to the British model which has worked so successfully there in recent years? A sectoral approach means that some sectors will be decades away from being encompassed and that whistleblowers who come up against issues such as that which happened at AIB, would not have the protection of law. I speak with some personal experience of the need to protect whistleblowers who bring matters of public interest into the public domain.

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