Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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248. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of protected disclosures received by his Department in each of the years 2017 to 2020 and to date in 2021; the number that were accepted as a protected disclosure; the number that were in part or fully examined by a third party or consultancy; the number of protected disclosures under investigation over this period; and the number that were finalised and the contents accepted and acted on. [16024/21]

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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249. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of protected disclosures received by his Department in each of the years 2017 to 2020 and to date in 2021 from officials within his Department; the number of officials who made protected disclosures over the period and who are now not working in his Department; and the number of protected disclosures received from retired officials of his Department over the period. [16042/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 248 and 249 together.

As required under the relevant legislation, my Department has a Protected Disclosures Policy in place under which a staff member who wishes to make a protected disclosure may do so to any of the following confidential recipients:

- an independent confidential service engaged for this purpose,

- the Head of the Internal Audit Unit in the Department, or

- any member of the Department’s Management Board.

Contact details for all of the above confidential recipients, as well as procedures for making a protected disclosure, are contained in the policy document which has been circulated to all staff and which is also  available on the Department's intranet. 

The recipient carries out an initial review to establish whether the case meets the criteria for a Protected Disclosure. If it meets the criteria, the case is then assigned to a senior official who will take the appropriate action, for instance an investigation, depending on the subject matter of the case.

With one exception, all the Protected Disclosures have been investigated by senior DAFM officials who have had no previous involvement in the matters being disclosed. In one case, in order to avoid any conflict of interest, an outside consultancy has been asked to carry out the investigation.

Due to the confidentiality of the protected disclosures process, details are not retained centrally as to whether the discloser is a current or former member of staff.

The numbers and status of Protected Disclosures received in the Department to date are:

*One of the four cases counted for 2020 was received in 2018 but was not acted on due to the discloser withdrawing another protected disclosure covering the same topic. Following an internal review of the matter in 2020, the Department commenced an investigation into the disclosure.

The Department is committed to taking action should evidence of wrongdoing be found on foot of an investigation arising from a Protected Disclosure.