Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

The Green Party is happy to support this Bill proposed by the Labour Party and other parties. I heard an interesting interview on RTE Radio One last night with Mr. Joel Bakan who has written a book called The Corporation that has also been made into a film of the same name. He set out how, in a sense, in our modern legal system a corporation is a selfish institution given huge powers and authority with few checks, if any, to bring a moral bearing to how it operates for the common good. One of the few checks is that there is a possibility that somebody within the corporation will realise that the activity in which he or she may have engaged is wrong and will blow the whistle. This is what the Bill provides for and we should introduce this welcome and significant power.

It is interesting to hear the Government's position on this matter. One key phrase came from the leader of the Labour Party, Deputy Rabbitte, who quoted from the Official Report what had been said by the Tánaiste who was responsible for the Bill at the time. She was not just a bystander giving idle comment on it. In June 2005 she said it was not the Attorney General's advice but official advice that difficulties would arise if the whistleblowing legislation applied to companies outside Ireland with a subsidiary in the country. It is quite clear that this Bill was killed because the Tánaiste's friends in large multinational companies did not like it. The Progressive Democrats Party is practically the public affairs department for those companies. I welcome them to this country and I want to see them continue here and flourish but I do not want them to have carte blanche as to how they operate.

Not surprisingly, and not for the first time, we had a different line from the Minister, Deputy Martin. There was no talk about those foreign subsidiaries having a problem. He said the problem lay with the Central Bank in terms of official secrets legislation. To be honest, of the two contradictory statements of the Tánaiste and the Minister, Deputy Martin, I do not believe what Deputy Martin said. I will never find out the truth because the Government shut down freedom of information access to correspondence between Ministers, such is its dislike for openness and transparency in Government. I do not believe a word of what the Minister, Deputy Martin, said. The Tánaiste's line is probably accurate and correct.

I do not believe the Government's piecemeal sectoral approach will work. A fisheries Bill is in the process of going through the Seanad. This is an area where there is huge concern and a possible need for whistleblowing, yet no provision has been made in this Bill for somebody in a processing factory, for example, who might want to blow the whistle on possible corruption. Neither was any reference made to sea fisheries officers who might want to blow the whistle on corruption in the industry. I do not believe the Government when it states it wants to adopt a sectoral approach and I do not believe it will work.

The Government has not provided a level of whistleblowing protection adequate to allow for the exposure of scandals such as in AIB and other institutions over the years. The Government is dishonest, disingenuous and wrong when it states that the way to approach this is a piecemeal one. I do not believe that the corporations would object to a strong approach, whatever the Tánaiste's views on the matter. What happened in companies like Enron and Arthur Andersen show that it is in the long-term interest of companies to have a proper environment wherein people can blow the whistle because if capitalism and corporations operate in a system that is not based on trust, where controls operate and proper activity is carried out, it will not work in the long run. The Government's approach is a disgraceful retreat in the face of sectoral interests against the common interest.

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