Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

As I said earlier and also when we discussed this previously, I have no doubt predecessors of mine indicated why the Government had decided, based on the strong advice of the Attorney General, that a much more robust way of dealing with whistleblower protection was by doing it on a sectoral basis in order to tailor it to the circumstances that pertain in the particular area. There is no doubt there is existing and substantial legislation in the area of corruption and its prosecution. What we are endeavouring to do here, as is clear under the existing 2001 legislation, is to ensure the provisions on whistleblowing, particularly those added to by this Bill, create a situation where any official, public or private, who complies with the law in regard to good faith can make a report. To a certain extent, the Deputies are exaggerating in regard to some of the specific issues that have arisen.

With regard to amendment No. 4, we propose to remove the words "ought reasonably to know". This, in effect, reduces the test for knowingly making a false report to an objective test so that it depends now on what a whistleblower actually knew, not what they subjectively could be expected to have known. I propose the amendment.

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