Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is an important Bill and I am delighted to see it before the Dáil. I commend the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, and his officials. The publication of whistleblower legislation is a clear commitment in the programme for Government. In 2012 the Mahon tribunal's report strongly recommended strengthening protection for whistleblowers. Internationally, protection of whistleblowers is seen as central in the struggle against corruption. In the United Kingdom, our nearest neighbour, legislation was enacted in 1998, while legislation was enacted in New Zealand in 2001. While the Bill is welcome, it is long overdue.

The aim of the legislation is to protect workers from reprisals were they to report wrongdoing and its application will be in the public and private sectors. The Minister had a number of options and I am delighted that he chose to encompass both sectors. A whistleblower will be covered under the legislation from the first day of work. We are not in the business of creating new quangos but cutting costs and it is right that the Rights Commissioner will be the first port of call in making a complaint, with a right of appeal to the Labour Court.

A definition of a whistleblower is a person who discloses an activity which he or she believes to be illegal, immoral or unethical and can include items such as danger in the workplace, price-fixing, negligence and bribery. In the past decade in the United Kingdom the top five areas of concern as reported have been financial malpractice, work safety issues, public safety, including patient safety, the abuse of children or adults and ethical issues such as nepotism and conflicts of interest. This country has a disgraceful history in terms of child abuse and it is right and proper that the legislation will allow easier and safer disclosure of issues which may arise with children, vulnerable adults and the elderly community. Examples have been provided by other Deputies and it is a positive move.

Last year I raised a Topical Issue regarding a complaint made to me by a constituent who would have benefited from this legislation were in place at the time. The person who approached me had lost his job at a health facility merely because he had raised concerns that proper and safe procedures were not being followed in the disposal of hazardous radioactive medical waste. At the core of this issue was the safety of patients, workers and the public. The individual lost his job, as did many of his associates and friends at the facility, because he had chosen to raise questions and speak out and send e-mails indicating that proper procedures were not being followed. He received a redundancy payment, but he went through a very difficult period, as did others.

The legislation refers to retrospective effect. Where an individual has moved to another job, will he or she be entitled to avail of the compensation mechanism? Is it possible for someone to make protected disclosures about a previous job? Is it possible for my constituent who is now in a new job to make protected disclosures about safety concerns in his previous employment, the measures not taken and procedures not followed? Perhaps the Minister might clarify this.

I welcome the Bill which will change the Unfair Dismissals Act to cover those who make protected disclosures. It will also deal with the issue of compensation and prohibit the penalisation of whistleblowers by measures such as suspension, unfair treatment and blacklisting, whereby someone's name is mud, whether in the banking sector or the health care sector, as in the case I discussed. This is an issue of grave concern. I commend the Minister and his officials for bringing forward the legislation.

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