Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There has to be balance. If we move away from the balanced approach in this Bill so that we afford protections in all circumstances to somebody who makes an accusation, we will fundamentally undermine the Bill. The modelling I have talked about is examining the best international practice, and I have asked my team to examine best international practice. These matters have been legislated before the courts in the United Kingdom and they found that reasonable belief is a low threshold case but where there is demonstrable knowledge that the allegation is false, we have to have protections for people against that as well.

That is the balance that is implicit in the Bill. I genuinely believe that objectively a requirement for reasonable belief of substantial truth before a matter could be raised externally is the right threshold. Obviously, this threshold is not required in order for a complaint to be made internally to the company.

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