Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I thank the Deputy for raising the matter, as I acknowledge he has on previous occasions, as he said. He raised it with my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Chambers, who has committed to engaging with him. I will welcome his views on the legislative basis we have in Ireland.

I am not familiar with the details and if the Deputy has details, he should furnish them to the relevant authorities. That would be useful. Ireland has comprehensive legislation to protect workers who raise concerns about wrongdoing in the workplace. We have been on quite a significant legislative journey to try to get it right. The Protected Disclosures Act was enacted in 2014. It was enhanced and amended during the previous Dáil through the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Act 2022. A statutory review of the Protected Disclosures Act is built in. That is due to commence, I am told, in the near future. Under the law, it must be done by 2027. It must be done within five years. A public consultation will be held as part of that review. Those of us who were here in 2022 will recall that the Act has built into it a statutory review of the legislation. That will involve public consultation. We will be obligated as an Oireachtas to consider the legislation during the lifetime of this Dáil.

We will be obligated to, quite rightly, have a public consultation as part of that. At EU level, there is a review of the EU whistleblower directive, which is Directive 2019/1937, expected next year. The amended Act we have is a transposition of the EU whistleblower directive. That will be charged with reporting to both the European Parliament and the Council on the national law transposing the directive, so it asks how every country is getting on with fulfilling their EU obligations and whether any additional measures are considered appropriate for any member state in the European Union's analysis of people's compliance with that directive. The Commission has indicated the report will be finalised no later than 2026.

I say that by way of context for some of the broader issues the Deputy raised, because protecting whistleblowers is important. People who come forward in the public interest need to know that they can do so in an environment that is safe. That is the purpose of our legislation and indeed it was the purpose of the broadening of the scope of the legislation in 2022, where we made it clear that there was a broader range of people who could report wrongdoing, beyond employees, to include volunteers, shareholders, trainees, board members and job applicants, and ensure they benefited from the protection of the law. It also imposes new requirements on employers as regards the operation of a formal whistleblowing channel. There are also now special channels for the reporting of wrongdoing relating to law enforcement, security, defence, international relations or intelligence. Our law of the land, the Act, prohibits any penalisation or threat of penalisation for a worker who has made a protected disclosure. Penalisation can include unfair dismissal, unfair treatment, coercion, intimidation or harassment. Statutory protection from penalisation is provided primarily by the Workplace Relations Commission, which can make orders for restitution and payment of up to five years' salary in compensation. Cases can be appealed to the Labour Court.

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