Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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304. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the number of protected disclosures made to her Department in each of the past five years and to date in 2021. [29643/21]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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As required under Section 22 of the Protected Disclosure Act 2014 my Department publishes an annual report setting out the number of protected disclosures made to it in the course of the immediately preceding year and certain other information relating to any such protected disclosures.  

These reports contain the further detail sought by the Deputy.  The 2019 report is available on the Department's page on the gov.ie website (www.gov.ie/en/organisation-information/58aa8-disclosure-of-wrongdoing-in-the-workplace/), and the 2020 report is being prepared for publication at present.  Reports for the years 2015-2018 are available at  wayback.archive-it.org/org-1444/20201009111625/https://www.chg.gov.ie/about/policy-on-disclosure-of-wrongdoing-in-the-workplace/ which can be accessed through the Department's page on the gov.ie website

I can confirm to the Deputy that no protected disclosures have been received  from officials within my Department or from  any retired officials of my Department during the period in question.

For the Deputy's convenience, I can also confirm that both submissions that were accepted as constituting Protected Disclosures, were processed in accordance with my Department's Policy on Disclosure of Wrongdoing in the Workplace and that in neither case was evidence identified of any wrongdoing having occurred.

A summary of the submissions made to my Department under the Protected Disclosures Act since 2015 is set out in the table below.