John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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237. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if a review of the whistle-blower legislation will be instigated. [10830/21]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Protected Disclosures Act 2014 provides comprehensive statutory protections from retaliation for persons who speak up about wrongdoing in the workplace.

A statutory review of the Act was published in July 2018. The review found that the Act was operating broadly as intended. However, a number of implementation issues were identified in the review and a commitment was given to look at how these could be addressed in the context of the new EU Whistleblowing Directive, which was being negotiated at the time the statutory review was conducted.

In this regard, the EU Whistleblowing Directive (Directive (EU) 2019/1937) was adopted on 19 October 2019 and Ireland has until 17 December 2021 to transpose it into Irish law. Implementation of the Directive will further enhance and strengthen the protections for whistleblowers in Ireland. The approach to be taken with the transposition will examine not only what changes to the 2014 Act are needed to meet the requirements of the Directive but will also take into consideration the findings of the statutory review where relevant.