Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 6 and 7 together.

The Protected Disclosures Act 2014 provides a robust statutory framework which aims to provide protections to whistleblowers who raise concerns regarding potential wrongdoing in their workplace. These protections apply to workers in all sectors of the economy, both public and private. They protect whistleblowers from being penalised by their employer for reporting wrongdoing in the workplace or suffering any detriment for doing so.

The Act requires every public body to establish and maintain procedures for dealing with protected disclosures and to provide written information relating to these procedures to their employees. In line with the Act, my Department has a policy on protected disclosures, which sets out the procedure by which an employee can make a disclosure, what will happen when a disclosure is made and what my Department will do to protect a discloser.

My Department is committed to fostering an appropriate environment for dealing with concerns and assisting staff in "speaking up" regarding potential wrongdoing in the workplace and to providing the necessary assistance for staff who raise genuine concerns. To date, no disclosures have been received from employees or former employees of my Department.

The Protected Disclosures Act 2014 is one of many reforms implemented by the Government in recent years and is putting Ireland ahead of many other countries in changing how politics works and how whistleblowers are protected.

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