Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Protected Disclosures Act of 2014, which was steered by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, is intended to provide a statutory framework within which public and private sector workers can raise concerns regarding potential wrongdoing that has come to their attention in the workplace, with the comfort of employment and other protections if they are penalised or otherwise disadvantaged as a result of the disclosure. Sections 155, 156 and Schedule 2 of the Bill, which contain specific provisions relating to whistleblowing in the context of legal practitioners, were always intended to be a temporary placeholder for whistleblower protection in the event that the Act of 2014 did not materialise.

It was assumed at the time of the publication of the Legal Services Regulation Bill in 2011 that this matter would ultimately be dealt with in other legislation of general application and the provisions here deleted. As this has now come to pass, the presence of sections 155, 156 and Schedule 2 in the Bill need to be deleted.

The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform is also keen that this should happen in line with the Government decision to discontinue a sector by sector approach to whistleblowing, as well as the need to ensure there is no confusion and cross-cutting between parallel regimes. The Act of 2014 is understood to be comprehensive for these purposes. Since the Bill was published we have had new legislation for whistleblowers and we do not need to replicate the protected disclosures legislation in the Bill as obviously it applies to legal practitioners.