Written answers

Thursday, 13 October 2016

Department of Public Expenditure and Reform

Protected Disclosures

Photo of Clare DalyClare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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109. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform further to Parliamentary Question No. 164 of 5 October 2016 to outline his views on the value of creating a potent disincentive to corrupt practices and whether the recovery of lost revenues where same are exposed and the patterns of success demonstrated in the jurisdiction he cited are strong arguments favouring a more expansive system of protected disclosure; and his further views on whether soft inspections of financial data from the corporate sector here leads to moral hazard. [30138/16]

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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In so far as the arrangements referred to in the Deputy's earlier question relate to a scheme operated by the United States' Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and accessible to Irish citizens under the U.S.'s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, by which monetary awards are available for tip-offs leading to successful enforcement actions by the SEC, it would be a matter for my colleague, the Minister for Finance, in the first instance, to examine the merits or otherwise of replicating these arrangements in Ireland's statutory framework for financial markets.

Ireland's whistle-blower regime under the 2014 Protected Disclosures Act, for which I am responsible, goes beyond the financial services sector and is intended to provide a single overarching framework that protects whistle-blowers in a uniform manner in all sectors of the economy, both public and private. As I pointed out in my earlier reply, the aim is to create a supportive environment to allow for disclosures of wrongdoing to be made in the public interest rather than providing financial incentives for whistle-blowing, which may entail certain negative incentives, as I described. In so far as there may be a case to introduce financial rewards into our uniform and generally applicable regime, and whether and how this would be linked to any recoupment of funds by the Exchequer. I consider this to be a matter most appropriately examined in the context of the review of the Act to be commenced by my Department in 2017, as provided for in Section 2 of the Act.

The statutory framework for financial reporting by companies and its enforcement are matters, in the first instance, for my colleague the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement.

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