Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 7 provides greater legal certainty that a disclosure made prior to the enactment of this legislation can qualify as a protected disclosure provided that penalisation or detriment is continuing after the enactment of the Bill. This makes the provision contained in section 5(9) of the Bill no longer necessary, and amendment No. 9, therefore, deletes that section of the Bill. In essence, it ensures that we have retrospective effect as long as detriment to an employee is still occurring after the enactment of the Bill.