Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

My party is determined to introduce strong whistleblowing legislation. We believe the unacceptable practices at the banks and in other public bodies might well have been uncovered sooner if such legislation had been in place. Although there are limited protections for employees in certain legislation, there are several problems also.

Not all employees in either the public or private sectors are safe from retaliation if they report wrongdoing. There is virtually no protection for whistleblowers in the financial services and business sectors and there is little in the way of whilstleblower codes and guidance to be found throughout the public service. Our proposed legislation will not harm any business that is compliant with the relevant regulations and ethics in their industry.

We have published the legislative proposals to give protection to the whistleblowers in the open government Bill 2010, which forms part of Fine Gael's political reform policy, New Politics. The Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill 2008 was published on 6 June 2008. Two years later it still has not been enacted by the Government. The Minister for Justice and Law Reform said only two weeks ago that he was going to progress the Bill and only then because of sustained pressure to protect whistleblowers. We will certainly support this measure but believe it does not go far enough. For example, the Government has tabled an amendment to the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill 2008 which is specific to an offence under that legislation and relates only to the public service and to public officials only where they receive some personal benefit or obtain it from another person. The Government has inserted a whistleblower provision as an amending section, section 8A. This is very limited because section 8 itself is very limited. It is the only reference to corruption in public office.

In contrast, our proposals are deliberately general. We need far more than simply this limited offence of corruption in public office offered by the Government. Hence, the very broad list of areas where an employee can make a protected disclosure. This would cover, for example, a bank employee's reporting of the fact that the bank did not have proper internal auditing controls in place or was giving out loans without proper legal documentation. Another example is the misuse of public funds, as we saw in FÁS. The 2008 Bill provides for communication to "an appropriate person", which is defined as a member of the Garda Síochána, or, where the suspected transgression occurred in the course of a person's employment, the employer or a person nominated by the employer. We do not think this is satisfactory. Our proposals would allow for whistleblowing disclosures to be made by a nominated person who might be independent. For whistleblowing provisions to work, employees or members of the public must trust the independence of the person receiving the information. Nobody will go to his or her employer with information if there is no protection. It is recognised by all parties in the House that we need strong whistleblower legislation. We can only think of what could have been prevented if we had had such legislation before the banking crisis and the FÁS debacle. I recommend that the Government introduce stronger legislation than it is proposing in the form of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill. I hope such proposals will be brought before us at the earliest opportunity.