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

-----and it has taken until now for the issue to be taken seriously. Yesterday, we had the sudden sacking of the confidential recipient. That is good, but major questions remain. That person had been a political donor to the Minister in his election campaign. I do not know the exact nature of their relationship with one another but on the face of it they would seem to know each other quite well. The question, therefore, is when he made those comments to Maurice McCabe, was he acting with the knowledge of the Minister or with knowledge of the Minister's general disposition when it came to the allegations Maurice McCabe was making? It is difficult to believe he pulled these threats out of the sky, given his relationship with the Minister. At the very least, those questions must be answered.

I have much more to say about that issue but, on the legislation, there is a serious issue about people who are on contract employment. If their contracts are not renewed because they have been blowing the whistle, serious attention must be paid to that and to the issue of the relief they will get if they blow the whistle and lose their jobs, cannot pay their mortgages or whatever because it could be several years before they get that relief. That is a major disincentive to people blowing the whistle and therefore they need to be assured, and the legislation must pin down-----

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