Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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397. To ask the Minister for Health the number of protected disclosures made to his Department in relation to the NMBI in each of the years 2014 to 2018 and to date in 2019; the number ongoing; the year in which each protected disclosure was initially made; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39736/19]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Section 16(1) of the Protected Disclosures Act 2014 provides that a person who receives a protected disclosure in the course of their duties shall not disclose information that might identify the person making the protected disclosure. As Minister it is my duty to treat a disclosure as confidential and to protect the identity of the discloser where possible.

Under Section 22 of the Act, every public body shall prepare and publish not later than 30 June in each year a report in relation to the immediately preceding year in a form which does not enable the identification of the persons involved containing information relating to the matters in subsection 22(2) of the Act.

However, in an effort to address the Deputy's question, I can confirm that my Department received a total of four protected disclosures relating to the NMBI between 2014 and 2018, two of which are closed.