From Department of Public Expenditure and Reform
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The Protected Disclosures Act 2014 protects workers in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors from retaliation if they speak up about wrongdoing in the workplace. Workers can report wrongdoing internally to their employer or externally to a third party, such as a prescribed person Persons who make protected disclosures (sometimes referred to as “whistleblowers”) are protected by law – they should not be treated unfairly or lose their job because they have made a protected disclosure.
The Protected Disclosures Act 2022 will shortly be amended by the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill 2022. This Bill will give effect to Directive (EU) 2019/1397 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law , which harmonises the rules for the protection of whistleblowers across the EU. A public consultation on the areas where Ireland has discretion as regards implementation of the Directive was carried out in June and July 2020 and has helped inform the drafting of the legislation. Government approved and published a General Scheme of a Bill to amend the Protected Disclosures Act in May 2021. The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach published its Pre-Legislative Scrutiny Report on the General Scheme of the Bill in December 2021 and this has also fed into the development of the Bill, which was published on 9 February 2022. A Regulatory Impact Analysis has also been published with the Bill.
Information about what wrongdoings can be reported as protected disclosures, how to make a protected disclosure and how to obtain protection from penalisation for having made a protected disclosure can be found at Citizen’s Information .
In addition, Transparency International Ireland run a free Speak Up Helpline and Legal Advice Centre for people who have made or are considering making a protected disclosure.
If a worker decides to make a protected disclosure to a prescribed person rather than their employer, they must make sure you have chosen the correct person for the wrongdoing they wish to report. To assist in this regard, please refer to the current list of prescribed persons.
Under section 21(1) of the Act, all public bodies are required to establish and maintain procedures for the making of protected disclosures by their employees. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has issued guidance to assist public bodies in this regard.
The Workplace Relations Commission has published a statutory code of practice on the Protected Disclosures Act for employers in the public and private sectors.
As required under section 2 of the legislation, a statutory review of the impact and effectiveness of the Act was carried out and published in July 2018. As part of the review process, a public consultation was carried out from August to October 2017 to elicit views regarding the operation of the Act. 25 submissions were received, which informed the findings of the review.
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