Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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52. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the length of time it has taken his Department to respond to all protected disclosures made by members of the Defence Forces. [7335/17]

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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54. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the length of time it took his Department to respond to the protected disclosures of members of the Air Corps regarding hazardous working conditions in the paint shop at Casement Aerodrome; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7334/17]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 52 and 54 together.

Under the provisions of my Department’s customer charter it is policy to acknowledge written and electronic customer correspondence within 3 working days of receipt, unless a definitive reply can be issued within 5 days. With regard to the protected disclosures submitted in respect of health and safety issues in the Air Corps these were each delivered to my Department by hand in late 2015 and January 2016 and as such their receipt would have been acknowledged in person at the time they were submitted. In addition, supplementary correspondence has been acknowledged as it was received. The disclosures received were from current and former members of the Defence Forces.

Legal advice was sought at an early opportunity on how best to progress certain elements of the disclosures related to matters which were, and still are, the subject of litigation.

It was decided that an external reviewer should be appointed. I believe that in this instance it is important that I get a clear and independent view of the issues raised by those who have made disclosures.

With some difficulty, an appropriate individual was identified and I appointed him in July 2016 to carry out a review of the disclosures. However, in the event, he was ultimately not in a position to carry out the review.

In September 2016, I appointed an alternative independent third party to review the allegations made in the outstanding disclosures and those making the disclosures were informed of this fact.

In late November 2016, the interim recommendations and observations from the independent third party were submitted to me, and in December, I asked that these be passed to the military authorities for immediate action and response.

On 7 January, 2017, the Department received a response from the military authorities outlining the actions underway and this has been forwarded to the independent reviewer for consideration.  I understand that the reviewer has reviewed this material, and has initiated a number of meetings in order to finalise his review. 

In addition to the three protected disclosures mentioned above, my Department has received a further 3 disclosures which having been assessed, were deemed protected disclosures under the provisions of the Protected Disclosures Act 2014. Of these, two have been resolved and the third is ongoing. In addition, I am in receipt of a disclosure received on 27 January 2017 which is currently being assessed.