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

I will press the amendment, although I will not seek a vote on it. I am not terribly happy with the Minister of State's reply because it is somewhat evasive. The Minister of State cannot speak again but perhaps his officials could just nod. If a disclosure is allowed by law and the whistleblower legislation allows for the disclosure, the Minister would not be able to override permission? I welcome that the Government is introducing legal supports for whistleblowers but I want an assurance that the Minister's power to demand confidentiality cannot override people's legal right to be whistleblowers. It is not clear to me whether that assurance for people to blow the whistle when it is in the public interest to do so is provided for.

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