Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I will make some comments on the Bill but, following what Deputy Flanagan has said, we have to look at a Bill like this, the general thrust of which at least is welcome, in the context in which the Bill is put forward because the objective should be to give support and facilitate people who are blowing the whistle on wrongdoing, malpractice, corruption and other activities that could be damaging to society or to individuals involving criminal activity in corporate or State institutions. That is what it should do. We have to have a context in which the people blowing the whistle feel confident the State will back them up if they genuinely believe they have been victims of or witnesses to serious wrongdoing and abuse.

If that is the objective, we must then examine from where we have come and where we are at now. It would be a fair summary to say that, historically, we have lived in a State of fear and tyranny where those who are the victims of wrongdoing, abuse or corruption are terrified to speak out and believe that if they speak out, they will suffer dire consequences - vilification, loss of job, demonisation, victimisation and so on. That has been the history of this State, whether it is at the hands of the church, powerful and wealthy elites or of the State itself in terms of the Magdalen laundries or the background to the economic crash that has destroyed this country economically. Would it not have been wonderful if this was a State in which people working in the banking industry, local authorities, Government or wherever who knew what was going on in terms of banking, developers and so on had the confidence to speak out and blow the whistle on what was going on? That did not happen. That is the environment we need to create.

In that context, the events of the past few weeks would hardly give people confidence. I read the transcript of the conversation between Oliver Connolly and Maurice McCabe yesterday, and it is extraordinary. This is about a member of the Garda who took his life in his hands and spoke out about what he believes to be widespread, endemic corruption in the Garda, not just about penalty points but about murders not being investigated and people being set up for crimes they did not commit. These are the most serious allegations imaginable. He goes to someone whose job specifically is to be a point of contact for people who want to blow the whistle on wrongdoing in the Garda and, instead of getting support or being facilitated, this person who represents the Minister for Justice and Equality tells him to shut up and keep quite, and threatens him that the Minister will go after him - will screw him - if he threatens to go public with his allegations. Thank God Maurice McCabe had the confidence to face down that sort of bullying and intimidation and continue to speak out.

Sometimes political credit needs to go somewhere and the people who deserve that credit are Deputies Mick Wallace and Clare Daly. Deputy Wallace told me he first raised the issue of Maurice McCabe more than a year ago-----

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