Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Section 3 outlines repeals, including the repeal of section 5(7A). This is a technical amendment to remove a reference to subsection 7A of section 5 of the Principal Act.

Section 5(7A) was inserted into the Principal Act by the European Union (Protection of Trade Secrets) Regulations 2018, which provided for the transposition of the trade secrets directive. This directive required that a person who made a protected disclosure could only disclose information deemed to be trade secret if he or she acted for the purpose of protecting the public interest. Article 21.7 of the whistleblowing directive clarifies the legal position vis-à-visthe trade secrets directive, on the one hand, and the protection of whistleblowers, on the other hand, and makes clear that a person who makes a disclosure of a trade secret, in accordance with the rules of the whistleblowing directive, should not be subject to this public interest test. Accordingly, this provision can and should be repealed.