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

I thank Senator Flynn for raising this issue. It is important to point out that interim relief is being extended under the Bill to all acts of penalisation, which is a positive development.

This amendment proposes to reduce the threshold for employees who wish to apply to the Circuit Court for interim relief following penalisation. It proposes to reduce the threshold from “an employee who claims to have suffered penalisation wholly or mainly from having made a protected disclosure” to “an employee who claims to have suffered penalisation wholly or partly from having made a protected disclosure”. I have consulted the Attorney General on this issue. The existing text of the Bill is consistent with the provisions of the principal Act dealing with interim relief. Amending this provision may have wider implication for the Act and its operation, in the view of the Attorney General. Accordingly, I cannot accept this amendment.