Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 9 is interesting in the context of this section. The section provides that a worker may make a report to the relevant Minister if one or more of a list of given conditions are met. It then goes on to talk about the head of the public body. To use the example of a Department, the Secretary General would be in charge. If an assistant secretary has engaged in wrongdoing, is the worker precluded from writing to the Minister? I know the Secretary General is the Accounting Officer and is in charge of the Department but assistant secretaries and principal officers also have roles. Why does the section refer only to the head of the body? It is just a matter of terminology? Is it legalese? Does the head of the Department really mean the full Department? That is not my reading of the section. It is a valid question. It would not make a lot of sense if people who were of the view that their superiors up the line were involved in wrongdoing but had no proof that the Secretary General was involved were not able to write to the Minister. I would like some clarity on that.