Dáil debates
Tuesday, 25 November 2025
Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
2:00 am
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Cá bhfuil an Taoiseach? I understand the Taoiseach is back in the country. He should be here taking questions. The cost of home heating oil has shot up €80 in just one month. It is a big blow. The average price for a fill of oil is now a staggering €980. This hike hits more than 1 million households, mostly rural families and the elderly, who rely on oil to heat their homes. Here is the real kick in the teeth. This unaffordable cost of home heating oil has been driven up by the Government’s decisions. Some €220 of the cost of a fill of oil is already carbon tax. The Government’s planned increases will add a further €150 in the time ahead. It has to be asked. How on earth does it think people can afford that? One family contacted me yesterday. They got a fill of heating oil last week and they have not turned on the heating since Friday because they need that fill to last over Christmas and throughout the new year. They are rationing their heat. The weather is colder now and the reality is that more and more working households struggle to pay their bills to light and heat their homes. Energy is unaffordable and people are being ripped off.
The Minister, Deputy O’Brien, met with the top brass at energy companies in September, and what happened? The majority hiked up their electricity prices with no fear of any consequence. Then, with winter on the horizon and energy bills going up, the Government chose to cancel energy credits in October's budget, a terrible decision, withdrawing the one bit of help people relied on to pay those rip-off bills. In fact, the Government delivered a budget of €9.4 billion that left working people worse off with no cost-of-living package while households are being hammered with no end in sight.
Social Justice Ireland reported yesterday how the slashing of cost-of-living supports has ratcheted up pressure and pushed more households into financial distress. People literally live in dread of the next electricity, gas or heating bill and I meet working parents who tell me they have bought extra blankets for their kids' beds because they cannot afford to turn on the heat. Elderly people are going to bed early to stay warm. Couples, often with two incomes, are borrowing from family members to pay their energy bills.
These are desperate situations, and the Government sticks its head in the sand.
Tá an Rialtas seo ag barr an ranga maidir le saol na ndaoine a dhéanamh níos deacra. Tá sé le feiceáil arís san ardú ar phraghas an ola don teas tí. Éilíonn teaghlaigh gníomhartha i dtreo saol níos inacmhainne. On the watch of the Government, the cost of lighting and heating a home has become unaffordable, and this simply cannot go on. Households cannot take any more. I know exactly what the Government has done to make life harder for people. It is obvious. It withdrew energy credits, it gives free reign to energy companies to hike up prices, it heaps additional carbon taxes onto home heating oil, it has cancelled cost-of-living supports, it delivered a budget of billions of euro that abandoned people - all bad choices that have made things even worse.
What action will be taken to make life affordable for people or will the Government simply continue to sit back and allow households to take the pain?
2:05 am
Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as ucht na ceiste ar an ábhar tábhachtach seo ach ní aontaím léi ar chor ar bith. I do not agree with her at all. The measures that have been taken in the budget are targeted to help those who need them most, particularly in the area of social protection. We have increased the fuel allowance substantially and expanded it to about 460,000 households right across the country. The Deputy has ignored that, one of the most significant changes we have made.
Another change, on foot of the interim report of the national energy affordability task force, is the effective permanent reduction of VAT from 13.5% to 9% on gas and electricity, bringing about a saving of over €100 per annum for households, a permanent change. Yes, the Deputy is correct that we have not extended the energy credits. That is because we believe that the €3.5 billion that was used there at the appropriate time is more appropriate to go into structural measures such as investing in our grid and in grid capacity. We have also provided equity of €3.5 billion to EirGrid and ESBN. That will allow them to finance the investment that is required in our grid in projects like the North-South interconnector, that one project that will deliver resilience for our grid and will allow-----
Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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-----the extension and expansion of renewables into our grid, a project that Deputy McDonald's party seems to be flip-flopping on north of the Border. I have met her party's ministers in the North of Ireland, who are for the project; its Deputies in the South are opposed to it. This is a permanent measure that will deliver affordability.
Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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We want it underground.
Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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I have met Caoimhe Archibald and Liz Kimmins. All of the Deputy's colleagues in the North are taking the right position. They want to see this delivered.
What do we do in the meantime? As regards energy, we unquestionably have affordability issues. That is why we established the national energy affordability task force. We have brought forward interim measures already. That work is continuing and we will publish a report in 2026 looking at some permanent measures that we can change. What the Deputy has not referred to either is the Eurostat report, published just last week, that shows Ireland as mid-ranking now with European colleagues in relation to energy affordability. However, for many households, these bills are expensive and some struggle to pay them. That is why I met the energy providers. All four of the main providers have confirmed again to me at my request that hardship funds will be set up. I say to people who are in arrears that the State is there to support them through the fuel allowance payments, and no one will be cut off. I have again had that confirmed at my request. People will work with providers through this winter period.
The reality is that we are still far too dependent on imported fossil fuel. That is why we need to expand renewables across the country. That is why 41% of our electricity last year was generated through renewable sources. We will continue to expand that - our own energy, in respect of which we are sovereign and we can control - and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.
In relation to the carbon tax, the Deputy has not referred to how the carbon tax that relates to home heating oil has been deferred until May 2026. The carbon tax gives us the capital to bring about permanent affordability measures for families. We are targeting 60,000 retrofits in 2025 alone and €558 million next year in retrofits. That is delivering about a third in savings on average, according to the International Energy Agency, IEA. Those are not my statistics but the IEA's statistics. These are permanent changes for households, including schemes like the warmer homes scheme, which provides a 100% grant to fully retrofit homes, bring renewables to those homes, make them warmer and healthier, and bring about permanent savings for those households.
We will continue to look at all of the measures on affordability.
2:15 am
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Does the Minister know how humiliating it is for anybody to have to go to family members to borrow consistently to pay their household bills? Does he know how demoralising it is for working people to go out Monday to Friday, work hard and do their best and still not be able to keep their children warm? Does he know how unacceptable, in fact, how immoral, it is in a wealthy society under a government that boasts billions of euro in surpluses to leave people so stranded and so desperate in these circumstances? The Minister stands here today delusional as though he lives in another place, in another reality. Here is what Social Justice Ireland says. It reports that people are having to make impossible choices - its words, not mine - in order to remain within their weekly budget. That is a polite way of saying that people are struggling. People are now fearful.
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Let me ask the Minister a supplementary on the energy credits.
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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The energy credit should be reinstated. I am right, am I not? Is that not a correct position in a wealthy society and from the Minister's Government?
Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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I have answered the Deputy's question directly. For many families, it is not easy and the State is there to support them. That is why we have expanded the social protection measures that are targeted at those who need them. The Deputy made no reference to that. Again, it is in stark contrast to what her colleagues are doing in the North in relation to helping with fuel bills. The fuel allowance payment in the North of Ireland is between €113 and €340. The Deputy probably knows, but she will not say it here today, that it is only available to those over 66 years of age in the North where Sinn Féin holds the finance Ministry. In the South, the fuel allowance is worth about €924 per annum.
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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That is pathetic.
Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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That is true. Let us leave the politics piece out of it. I can say to families out there that the Government and the State will work with them right the way through this winter to bring about permanent affordability measures. I have mentioned retrofitting.
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Government has abandoned them.
Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy is opposed to carbon tax. The carbon tax is invested in people's households to bring about permanent changes to their homes, permanent affordability measures and permanent health measures to their homes. This year 60,000 homes will be retrofitted.
Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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Tá an Taoiseach as láthair, it seems. It is a nice surprise to see the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, today.
Temperatures are dropping rapidly as winter approaches. Household heating bills are rising just as fast. One million households across Ireland use oil for home heating, representing 38.9% of all households. The price of their bills has rocketed up by 9% in just one month. On its own, that would squeeze any household but that spike comes on top of a barrage of other price hikes. Energia, SSE Airtricity, Bord Gáis Éireann and Flogas have all put up their prices again. These are highly profitable energy companies doing very well, some would say obscenely well, while bill payers face an impossible choice to freeze or to feel the squeeze, trying to make ends meet this winter. People simply have no more to give, as I know the Minister will be aware. Before this cold snap hit, 300,000 people were already in arrears on their electricity bills. The Government has offered nothing to help reduce household costs or to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
I know the Minister has just said of course we need to reduce reliance fossil fuels but the Government is way behind on retrofitting targets and so carbon emissions continue to rise. People living in draughty homes have no option but to rely on fuels that are unsustainable both for our planet and for household finances.
It is three and a half years since Russia's horrific onslaught on Ukraine but now in 2025 energy providers are hiding behind what is a geopolitical tragedy to justify price hikes that cannot be explained by supply costs. The Minister just spoke about Ireland's energy bills compared with our European counterparts. Our energy bills are still markedly higher. The driver of those prices is not war; it is corporate greed. We see that elsewhere too with supermarkets hiking their prices at the tills, rents and mortgages climbing, and people's personal finances under attack from all angles, having less and less left over at the end of each month - less for Christmas, car repairs, a burst pipe or any unforeseen eventualities.
What is most galling is the sense that things are much worse than they could be because the Government could be doing more.
The Government has given a message to hang in there but is offering no evidence that its policies are anything worth waiting for. In the Minister's previous response, he talked about a report due in 2026, but in a cost-of-living crisis, people need protection now against corporate greed. Labour has called on the Government to force supermarket giants to publish profits, yet the Government has refused to do so. It has refused to use its legal powers to control energy prices. The Government has spoken about meeting with energy companies in September, but what has come of that? Where are the promised hardship funds? Where are the promised supports for households? All we saw was one-off measures stripped away in the last budget in the service of VAT cuts for fast food giants. People are at the pin of their collars and the Government needs to take on these corporates. Will the Government finally tackle profiteering in energy prices, in groceries and in housing?
2:25 am
Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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First, may I deal with this charge that the Leader of the Opposition and the leader of the Labour Party have made that the Taoiseach is in some way absent. He is on Government business.
Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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He is at the G20 Summit. Should he not go to that as Head of the Irish Government? Should he not go EU-African Union Summit?
Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Deputy Bacik asked a question. One voice.
Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Is he in Dublin?
Pádraig Mac LochlainnDarragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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I know Deputy McDonald is just back from New York as well, but he was actually on Government business. Deputy McDonald was probably fundraising over there, filling the Sinn Féin bag full of cash.
Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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On a point of order, a Cheann Comhairle, all we look for is notification.
Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Deputies, resume your seats. Minister, please continue.
Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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It is Leaders' Questions, not aspiring leaders' questions.
Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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I will answer the Deputy's questions. Energy affordability is critical and I am glad Deputy Bacik raised the point. I have already answered Deputy Mary Lou McDonald. If we look at the measures that have been taken in the budget, they are targeted measures. They are very targeted across all areas, not just energy. If we look at social welfare rate increases, the renter's tax credit and the mortgage interest relief payments as well, all of those are targeted at people and are significant. It is unquestionably a very significant budget for people. We have got to keep the economy going as well and support the jobs that are there also. Jobs underpin this and it is the hard work of the State and the people that ensures we can have the resources to support our people through difficult times, as we did through Covid and as we did through the cost-of-living crisis, which was acute post the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. We now have to look at measures we are taking, particularly on energy, that are permanent. Deputy Bacik skipped over retrofitting. On retrofitting alone, we are looking at-----
Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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I mentioned it. The Minister skipped it.
Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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-----64,500 households that will be retrofitted this year. Next year, we are providing €558 million through the carbon tax receipts to put that directly into homes and small businesses to reduce their energy costs. The IEA has said it, not me, that those cost savings are between €900 and €1,200 on average per annum. Permanent changes for households, that is what we need. We need to expand renewables as well. The Deputy is correct in saying that. I have said that, too. Last year, over 40% of our electricity was generated through renewables. We have had a further successful auction in relation to solar and wind energy and we are within grasp of becoming energy sovereign in the next ten years. That will be critical to reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, particularly imported fossil fuels, where we are at the mercy of the vagaries of the market. The Deputy knows how the energy markets work. We are purchasing forward and a lot of our companies are. I insisted - I asked the energy companies - to make sure those hardship funds were brought back in place, and they are in place. No one can or will be disconnected through the course of this winter either. I say to people who are in arrears that there is assistance from the State, they should contact their energy providers and we can work through measures with them. Our work on that is not concluded.
Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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I would certainly like to hear more on that from the Minister, but on the Taoiseach's lack of presence here, of course he must represent the country abroad, but we had understood he would be here today and it is a common courtesy that we would be notified in advance of Leaders' Questions when he is not taking them.
On the Minister's response, we absolutely support retrofitting. In fact, what we in the Labour Party have been critical of is the delay in the roll-out of affordable retrofitting. Around the country, people are frustrated at the delay on retrofitting, missed targets on retrofitting and a lack of affordability, just as people are frustrated about the delay in the roll-out of renewables. We want to see renewable capacity ramped up at great scale. All of us are frustrated at the delays. The Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA, was established some time ago. We supported that in opposition, but we are still seeing such delay in offshore development.
In the meantime, this is about fairness. It is about reshaping priorities so that those who have profited most from the crisis will pay their share rather than seeing the burden of energy costs pushed back on working people and on families and households.
The Labour Party has put forward a series of supports and is simply asking the Government to adopt them.
2:35 am
Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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We will obviously ensure the measures we have brought forward are implemented. On retrofitting alone, we have retrofitted nearly 230,000 homes across the country. That is scaling up every single year. As I said, we will do about 64,500 this year. They are permanent changes for households to ensure they can bring down their energy costs.
There is the issue of the energy markets and the cost on the wholesale markets and the fact that our retail prices struck at the wholesale gas price even though we are accelerating renewables. That is a matter I have raised at every European Council meeting I have attended. At COP just last week, we introduced into the discussion the affordability piece for households because it is a real issue for households. We will continue to target measures at those who need them most as we are expanding our renewables.
On the work in relation to the affordability task force, we published our interim report and implemented measures like the 9% VAT rate and the expansion of the fuel allowance straight away. There will be further measures coming through in 2026.
Holly Cairns (Cork South-West, Social Democrats)
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These are the words of a remarkably strong words of a teenager from west Cork after her rapist was jailed yesterday for six years:
I could see my house just before he dragged me down the shortcut and started doing unimaginable things to me ... It made me feel so defeated - if it can happen so close to home it can happen anywhere.
Aged just 17 when she was attacked as she walked a short distance home, she told the court yesterday that she thought she was going to die. She spoke out because she wanted other victims of sexual violence to know that they are not alone. I want to commend on her incredible bravery.
Holly Cairns (Cork South-West, Social Democrats)
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This case highlights yet again why women rarely feel safe when they are out at night and why we do not jog or run when it gets dark, why we tightly grip keys when we walk, why we rarely wear headphones so we can be alert to sounds around us and why we are hyper vigilant about men walking behind us when we are alone. It is because nowhere is safe.
Violence against women is an epidemic in our society. Every day in court and crime reports we read of horrific cases involving women who have been beaten, sexually assaulted, raped or murdered. We know some of their names, the hugely courageous women who have spoken out like Bláthnaid Raleigh and Natasha O'Brien. Too often, in the absence of high-profile cases, there is a lack of political focus on this issue. The grim reality is the 52% of women in Ireland have experienced sexual violence. That is more than 1 million people. That is probably an under-reporting. What is being done about it?
It seems like pervasive levels of violence against women are something we are somehow just supposed to accept and tolerate as the price of being a woman. The Government has done some work in this area and I welcome the new agency Cuan that has been set up to tackle gender-based violence but why has progress on the basics been so slow? How are there still nine counties in Ireland without a women's refuge? How are women's counselling notes still at risk of being used in trials for rape and sexual assault? How is there still uncertainty about whether offences like stalking and coercive control can be included in a planned domestic violence register? How is toxic and abusive content aimed at demeaning, threatening and humiliating women allowed to proliferate online? I could go on and on but I am running out of time.
We need an emergency response. We need this to be treated like the epidemic that it is. Today is international day for the elimination of violence against women. Will the Government ban the use of counselling notes from courtrooms? When will refuge spaces be provided in every county?
Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Cairns for raising this very serious and important matter. I read the transcripts of the court case and it is absolutely horrific. I want to commend the bravery of that young lady. I have a 17-year-old daughter. I cannot imagine what she and her family are going through.
There should be no tolerance of violence against women, and there is no tolerance of it. That is why the Government's strategy of zero tolerance is so critical. The Minister, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, has been advancing some very specific measures in that regard. Jennie's law and Valerie's law are advancing, too. The establishment of Cuan by the previous Government was absolutely critical. As a former housing Minister, I was involved in the third national strategy. We need to make sure the supports are there for people.
Fundamentally, and I agree with the Deputy on this, the fact that many women, and young ladies as well, do not feel safe at night and have to change their behaviour and habits insofar as where they go, where they run and whether they use head phones, is not what we want our country to be. Unfortunately, this is not unique to Ireland. We have a responsibility, as a collective here in the Oireachtas, to work together on this very serious issue, and to work societally as well. Significant education is required. The Deputy mentioned online content and she is right. The normalisation of pornography among young men, in particular, is a really worrying trend. This is something that can be addressed through our education system and schools and through our families as well. Parents and guardians have to be very open about having these discussions at a very young age. I speak in this regard from experience of being a dad. We need to have those types of discussions.
It is important that the Government underpins the measures we have with funding. We have increased funding to almost €80 million in budget 2026. That is to support Cuan and the services working to tackle domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. The establishment of a specific agency to deal with this was critically important. The Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, is also looking to introduce legislative change, including, under the proposed guardianship of infants (amendment) Bill, to allow for the removal of guardianship rights from persons convicted of killing their intimate partner. The Minister also secured Government approval on 22 October to progress the criminal law (sexual offences, domestic violence and international instruments) Bill 2025, which includes measures to allow perpetrators of domestic violence to be included on a new register to be run by the courts and to strengthen the law around sexual consent. Convictions will be published online by the Courts Service under a specific heading of "domestic violence registered judgments".
I am acutely aware, as is the Government, that we need to continue the focus on this area and that there must be a zero-tolerance approach to violence against women.
2:40 am
Holly Cairns (Cork South-West, Social Democrats)
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I acknowledged that some work has been done in this area. However, when the Minister says the Government will continue its approach of zero tolerance, it is important to highlight that it needs to get real on this issue. He is talking about zero tolerance. Let us compare that with the fact nine counties are without a refuge space. The reality for women in violent homes in those counties is they have nowhere to go and are forced to stay in unsafe homes. There is nothing about this that speaks zero tolerance. We are talking about situations where women's counselling notes are allowed to be used against them in court in cases of rape and sexual assault. Nothing about that spells zero tolerance to people watching today.
As I said, we welcome some of the moves that have been made on this issue by this Government and the previous one, but it is time to get real and get to grips with the reality of gender-based violence in this country. I asked the Minister two questions and I will ask them again. When will the Government ban the use of counselling notes in court and when will those nine counties have a domestic violence refuge space?
Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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On the counselling notes, the Minister will bring forward amending legislation towards the end of this year or very early next year. That will be brought forward. I outlined in my first answer to the Deputy the other measures we are taking by way of legislation. As she raised, it is critically important that there be safe places for victims to go. The Government and I agree with her that more needs to be done there. However, the plan is for 52 new family refuge units, 45 new safe homes and 50 new units to be under construction, all by the end of next year. I have visited the new refuge in Wexford, which is excellent. Work is advancing on projects in the nine counties she mentioned, one of them in north County Dublin. I am very aware of what is happening there in relation to new refuge spaces.
This is something we have to continue to work on. I just want to assure the Deputy it is an absolute priority for both the Minister for justice and the Government.
2:50 am
Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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On 12 November, the Taoiseach told this House that legal advice states a Minister cannot read protected disclosures. That claim has caused real alarm throughout the country because if a Minister cannot read protected disclosures, the Minister cannot verify whether the Minister is being misled. It is an extraordinary position for this Government to have in a system that has repeatedly accused, attacked and retaliated against whistleblowers. A recent case shows that danger exactly. For decades, a cash-based duty exchange system has operated in the Irish Prison Service, not secretly but quite openly. A Workplace Relations Commission ruling has confirmed it, RTÉ "Prime Time Investigates" has exposed it, a senior retired governor called it universal and it is on the record of this House from 1996, meaning we have known about it here for over 30 years. Yet, when the matter reached the State legal apparatus of the Chief State Solicitor's office, that office told a statutory tribunal that the system did not exist and argued the point relentlessly that if it did exist, it would be fraudulent. We are left with only two possibilities, either the State participated and believes in a fraudulent case or the Chief State Solicitor's office misled a statutory body and perverted accountability. Both scenarios undermine our rule of law and raise the same question, namely, who is the State legal system protecting? Is it protecting the people's interest, the public's interest or is it saving the Government and State from embarrassment?
Part of a wider pattern is that whistleblowers who raised the issue, and others, have been sidelined and dismissed. Legal advice presented to Ministers appears to contain disclosures rather than deal with the ongoing wrongdoings. The Committee of Public Accounts has already confirmed that the system is obstructed. On page 10 of a report from January 2022, the committee states that the terms of reference for the protected disclosure investigation were drawn too narrowly and that suspected criminal activity could not even be referred to An Garda Síochána. That is not a flaw in the system; to my mind, it is a design in the system. It was reinforced in writing by the Taoiseach in August 2019 when he was Leader of the Opposition. A Minister told him a whistleblower's disclosure had been handled through legal advice and treated as a normal personnel matter, and he was asked to stand down. As I understand it, and if he was here today he could confirm it, he did stand down. That whistleblower lost his career four months later and has been fighting for justice ever since.
I will put direct questions to the Government. Is the Government satisfied that the legal advice given to the Ministers on protected disclosures is accurate, lawful and compliant with the Act of the EU directive?
Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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Does the Minister stand over the Taoiseach's statement of 12 November?
Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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We are committed as a Government to protecting whistleblowers. Work is ongoing at EU and national level to further strengthen those reports. The Deputy has a Private Members' motion tomorrow morning, I think, on this matter. We will get an opportunity to debate it in the round. We accept the motion tabled by Independent Deputies is well intentioned and seeks to increase protections for whistleblowers but, from an initial review, it appears to ignore many of the provisions that already exist in legislation to protect those individuals. It also contains a number of proposals which would have to be worked on in more detail and may have some unintended consequences too. We have set some of those concerns out in the countermotion, alongside our ongoing commitment to further review the legislation at both EU and national level. The role whistleblowers have is critically important and they deserve the protection of the State.
On the Deputy's contention that a Minister should have the opportunity to read protected disclosures, while I understand the intention, it is flawed. The political process needs to be separate from that. There is a clear process in relation to that. Every Minister gets a general report on protected disclosures, which is important too. There has to be an independent verifiable process for whistleblowers to be able to have the allegations or matters they have raised assessed in an independent way, separate from the line Minister, and where the whistleblower can feel it can be raised in safety and assessed with seriousness.
The Protected Disclosures Act 2014 is our national whistleblowers protection law. A major amendment to that Act was made in 2022. It was signed into law in July 2022 and commenced operation on 1 January. This is an area that we take seriously.
I look forward to the debate tomorrow morning in relation to the Independent Technical Group's motion, where the Deputy can put forward other matters relating to it. Whistleblowers in general have done this State a great service. They have raised matters that would not have come to the fore if we had not had the structures and processes in place to allow that to happen. A whistleblower should not find, in any way, shape or form, that their own situation is affected in a negative way simply because they have raised a protected disclosure that they feel is of great importance to the operation of their Department or agency or to behaviour within an agency or Department.
2:55 am
Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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Legal ambiguity protects the powerful. Clarity and accountability protect the Republic. I will put the questions to the Minister again because he has not answered them. Is the Government satisfied that the legal advice given to Ministers on protected disclosures is accurate, lawful and compliant with both the EU Act and the Act in the Republic? Does the Minister stand over the statement, made by the Taoiseach on 12 November in this House on receiving protected disclosures under section 8, that Ministers cannot even read them? Will the Government commission an independent review of legal advice provided to Ministers in cases involving corruption, criminal conduct and the misuse of public funds? Will the Minister confirm whether the conduct of the Chief State Solicitor's office, in presenting a position that has now been proved false, will be thoroughly and fully investigated?
Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy asked whether we are satisfied that we received that the Taoiseach read in this House. Of course we are. The Deputy has an opportunity tomorrow morning to raise specific points around his motion. As I said to him in my initial answer, this whole area is something that remains under review both at EU and national level. We want to make sure the process is fair and transparent and that protection is given to whistleblowers, which, in the main, it is. That is important. The Department of Finance will be taking this debate tomorrow. We look forward to the arguments that will be put forward in that regard. We are always open to looking at matters, whereby if there are improvements required that are legal, and we will do so. We look forward to the debate tomorrow morning.