Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank and congratulate the Minister for shepherding this legislation through the Houses. Many of the problems that governments and society are dealing with relate to things being hidden and stories not being told and crimes being committed that nobody knew about.

It also relates to people being afraid to speak out and voices being silenced by pressures in the all-powerful society. I hope this legislation will change matters so that, where wrongdoing is happening in any organisation, an employee will not only feel safe and free to speak out, but also compelled to do so. It should become the done thing. It is one matter to have protections, but it is another to make people feel they should be doing something to better society. If people speak out when they see wrongdoing, future Governments and societies will not have to deal with the problems of the past, as Irish Governments have constantly been doing because people were neither brave nor protected enough to speak out.