Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

These amendments are very important. There is a class of wrongdoing that does not rise to the level of criminal that needs to be included but has not been included in this legislation. I give some examples in amendment No. 9 in regard to the Companies Acts or the Competition Acts in that a breach of the Competition Act can be criminal but is not always criminal.

I want to give the Minister the other example where I am changing section 5(3)(f) which refers to where there is "an unlawful or otherwise improper use of funds or resources of a public body, or of other public money ...". Regarding the hospital scandal that has arisen, no one is suggesting that anyone at a high level in a hospital has committed a criminal offence but it could certainly be suggested that they are improperly using charitable money or improperly breaching pay guidelines issued by the Department. No one is saying they will be hauled in before a judge and jury and convicted of crimes. If someone were to whistleblow that, for example, the chief executive officer of hospital X is getting €30,000 from the tuck shop, that is not a crime but it may well be improper and against all the guidelines the Minister issues, and it may well be against the Haddington Road agreement. That employee could suffer consequences but the protected disclosure may not fit within the existing categories. My amendment No. 7 would cover that because it is not a crime but it may be improper. I also believe there are categories of wrongdoing that are not criminal that need to be included in that subsection (3). I specifically mentioned the Companies Acts and the Competition Acts.