Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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407. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he plans to remove the clauses in the heads of the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill 2021 which the Oireachtas Joint Committees on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach deemed to be regressive; if he will be redrafting this Bill given the other serious concerns that the committee outlined in its pre-legislative scrutiny report (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2268/22]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Legislation to amend the Protected Disclosures Act 2014 to provide for the transposition of EU Directive 2019/1937 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law ("the Whistleblowing Directive") is at an advanced stage of preparation and will be published shortly.

The Pre-legislative Scrutiny Report on the draft general scheme of the Bill, prepared by the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform and Taoiseach, has been received and its contents are being considered. I would like to thank the Committee for the significant amount of work they have put into the scrutiny of this important issue.

The recommendations of the Report will be taken into careful consideration in the process of finalising the Bill for publication and during its passage through the Oireachtas. A number of recommendations have been incorporated into the text of the Bill, which will go to Cabinet for approval shortly. There are also a number of recommendations which require further consideration with the Attorney General. Given that the date for the transposition of the Directive has now passed and in order not to further delay the publication of the Bill, I have decided that, depending on the outcome of deliberations with the Attorney General, these outstanding issues can be addressed by Committee Stage amendments if required.