Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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245. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons who report breaches of EU legislation will be debated and ratified by the Houses of the Oireachtas; if so, when same will take place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6824/21]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Directive (EU) 2019/1937 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law (also known as "the Whistleblowing Directive") was adopted on 23 October 2019 by the European Parliament and Council and must be transposed into Irish law by 17 December 2021. The Directive provides for a range of measures to establish a common set of minimum standards for the protection of persons who report breaches of EU law across all Member States.

Ireland already has comprehensive whistleblower protection laws in place in the form of the Protected Disclosures Act 2014. Transposition of the Directive will require a number of amendments to be made to the Act and these are being examined. Furthermore, a public consultation on those areas of the Directive where Ireland has discretion as regards implementation was conducted in June and July 2020. 24 submissions were received from a broad cross-section of stakeholders and have been published on the gov.ie consultation site.