Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for taking the time this morning to take these questions. It is a Cork thing this morning, for some reason. In 2019 there was a chemical explosion in a factory in Cork. It is well documented. It was documented by the Irish Examiner. A protected disclosure was lodged. Obviously there is a health and safety procedure and it went to the Health and Safety Authority, HSA. It was the first time I worked on a protected disclosure where it went all the way up to the top and came back down to say the issues were resolved. Unfortunately at the same time, 60 more complaints had gone in. It has escalated again now and those people who made the protected disclosure, those who were injured in those accidents, have now been faced with expulsion and harassment, such things as we spoke of yesterday during the debate on the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill. I approached the Tánaiste a number of weeks ago and in fairness he came back to me. Obviously the matter is within the remit of the Health and Safety Authority but I briefly explained the issue to him. This is where the crux is with our protected disclosure law at present. There is still no mechanism to see whether the reported incident has been resolved and if the people are being protected. More importantly, I have now found out through that last protected disclosure that the HSA has stated the issues have been resolved, when in fact they have not. As matters stand at the moment, is there any independent body that can carry out an investigation into the HSA? It is a very serious matter. This is not an anti-jobs or a point-scoring mission. This was the subject of a Cork City Council motion a number of years ago. The health and safety of people in the area are put at risk. I spoke to the county fire officers on this and I can say there is an ingredient being used in this factory called titanium dust. If that catches fire and goes up our fire service does not have the capability to put the fires out. These are the safety concerns that were raised during the protected disclosure and unfortunately, I reiterate, when it was originally given to the HSA in 2020, which is not too long ago, the HSA stated that all issues were resolved. Now, however, the same people are coming to me to explain that the issues have not been resolved. Some of the health and safety issues have been ignored, or not addressed properly, but the people who have been at the forefront of this making protected disclosures are being punished. How do we sort that out between management of the company, the HSA and those whistleblowers?

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