John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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162. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the process within his Department for dealing with protected disclosures under the 2014 Act; if the examinations of such disclosures are carried out by an independent authority or persons other than those within the organisation to which the disclosure refers; the number of disclosures received by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15073/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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My Department has guidance procedures in place and has provided training to relevant officials at Principal Officer level who will act as recipients for the handling of protected disclosures from staff of the Department.

The procedures were developed in accordance with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform’s Guidance for Public Bodies on Protected Disclosures.

In accordance with Section 22 of the Protected Disclosure Act 2014, my Department has published information on protected disclosures received during 2015 from the Education sector under Section 8 (Disclosures to a Minister) on its website:.

In summary, in 2015, 3 protected disclosures were received from workers in the Education  sector.  There were no protected disclosures received from Department staff during the same period.

Details of the number of protected disclosures received in 2016 will be published, in accordance with Section 22 of the Protected Disclosures Act, not later than 22 June 2017.