Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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315. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of protected disclosures that he has received from 2018 to date in 2022; the number that have been closed with actions to be implemented and or issues to address; the number that were dismissed and the number that remain open in tabular form; the protected disclosures that were referred to a third party for investigation and or assessment; the costs of same; and the company that was engaged. [45216/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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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:

- Resolve, which is 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 a submission 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 Departmental officials who have had no previous involvement in the matters being disclosed. In one case, in order to avoid any conflict of interest, the outside consultancy, Resolve, was asked to carry out the investigation.

The Department is committed to taking any necessary action should evidence of wrongdoing be found as a result of an investigation arising from a Protected Disclosure.

The numbers and status of Protected Disclosures received by my Department from 2018 to date are as follows:

*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 which covered the same topic. Following an internal review of the matter in 2020, the Department commenced an investigation into the disclosure. No wrongdoing was found.