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

This amendment provides for an amendment to section 10 of the principal Act, as amended by this Bill, to reinstate the requirement in the original Act that a worker making a public disclosure should reasonably believe that the information reported is substantially true.

The original text in the Bill transposed the provisions concerning public disclosure that are set out in Article 15 of the directive. The conditions at Article 15 are, however, in addition to the conditions that apply under Article 6(1)(a) of the directive that the reporting person has “reasonable grounds to believe that the information on breaches reported was true at the time of reporting and that such information fell within the scope of this Directive”. The provision in the Bill as it stands is not, therefore, a complete transposition of the public disclosure provisions in the directive and this needs to be corrected.

The original text of section 10 of the Principal Act provided, at section 10(1)(a), that “the worker reasonably believes that the information disclosed, and any allegation contained in it, are substantially true”. This is a slightly more favourable test for the reporting person than is provided for under the directive. As allowed under the non-regression clause at Article 23 of the directive, I have decided to reinstate this provision and this is what this amendment provides for. From the point of view of the whistleblower, this is a favourable change relative to the directive.