Shane Ross (Independent)

Approximately two years ago I brought a whistleblower, Mr. Eugene McErlean, to the Joint Committee on Economic and Regulatory Affairs. It was a risk. At the committee he convinced everybody on all sides, including the bank involved, AIB, not only of his credibility and truthfulness but also of the need to introduce legislation to protect whistleblowers. Even a senior executive in AIB, whom I will not name and who was not a favourite of Mr. McErlean when he worked at the bank, gave him a clean bill of health, as a man of great honesty, and acknowledged that what had happened had been an injustice. One might have thought the result would be that all of the parties would get together to say a whistleblower's charter or Bill should be introduced in the Oireachtas, but quite the opposite happened. For action to be taken, why does it take the Director of Public Prosecutions, from outside the Houses, to make an appeal on national television on Sunday night for the introduction of a whistleblower's charter and state he does not understand why one has not yet been introduced? There were good reasons for this statement besides emotional ones. The Director of Public Prosecutions was saying simply that he would find it difficult or harder - this is decoded - to secure convictions in any cases of white collar crime if he did not have the necessary tools and protection for the witnesses who would or should be whistleblowers. The message being sent to employees in the banks, semi-State bodies and other organisations is that Ireland is an unfriendly zone for whistleblowers, about which there is no doubt. There is no excuse for the failure to introduce a charter or legislation. In another AIB case Mr. Tony Spollen lost his job for whistleblowing. The two high profile cases to which I refer are a source of shame and nothing has been done. We are not going to get the people that we need to come forward unless we accept the legislation we need. We are to have in the House today statements on two issues that could be dealt with at any time, despite the fact that the Director of Public Prosecutions is pleading with us to give him the weapons he needs to allow him to take prosecutions leading to convictions. If the Leader wants to make Ireland a whistleblower-friendly zone, he should allow the introduction today of the necessary legislation which, after all, was introduced in the other House by Deputy Rabbitte. Let us get it through.