Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)

Last week in the House, I raised with the Minister, Deputy Chambers, the urgent need to extend legal aid to whistleblowers who step forward not for personal gain, but to protect the public interest. In that exchange, the Minister expressed his willingness to meet me and the whistleblowers in question. I accepted the offer in writing but have received no reply as yet from the Minister. There is plenty of time for that.

We all recall the case of Garda Maurice McCabe, a man falsely accused of the most heinous of crimes by Tusla, a State agency charged with the protection of children. The scandal shook this country to its core. It showed we treat our whistleblowers disdainfully. It showed we are not protecting but persecuting them. Today I raise a case that is equally as difficult as that of Garda Maurice McCabe. It is every bit as alarming.

In 2019, a former Tusla employee made a protected disclosure. He reported serious governance problems. It resulted in relentless retaliation and attack. In 2021, Tusla sent him a formal letter questioning his capability to work with children. This triggered an unauthorised background check in what appears to have been an orchestrated campaign to discredit him professionally, financially, personally and psychologically. Afterwards, at a hearing of the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, Tusla made a commitment to launch a full inquiry. That was four years ago and to date, there have been no findings, no inquiries, no answers, no accountability and no justice.

This case is not unknown to the public. The current chairperson of Tusla, Mr. Pat Rabbitte, commented publicly on this in the Irish Examiner in 2019: "It is deeply concerning that a whistleblower has been left without any financial income." Two former Ministers for children, Katherine Zappone and Deputy Roderic O'Gorman, were also briefed. The office of the then Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, was so concerned that it offered the whistleblower free counselling after receiving a detailed account of what occurred.

The retaliations from Tusla continued and the attacks deepened. The information we have obtained shows there was a formal complaint to the Data Protection Commission that Tusla contacted the whistleblower's private counsellor and demanded access to confidential records. That is an extraordinary breach of personal privacy by a State agency.

Ms Kate Duggan, Tusla's current CEO, held a direct meeting with this individual. During that meeting, she was informed that Tusla had falsely accused him of being a danger to vulnerable children, an allegation made without foundation against a man whose only crime was to tell the truth. Again, there has been no inquiry and no justice.

This is not merely an administrative failing or systemic dysfunction. The State is failing whistleblowers. It is not protecting them but is destroying their lives.

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