Protected Disclosures Act 2014 - Current Trends And Section 5(5) Defence Explored

Introduction

The RDJ Employment Team is seeing an increasing number of claims under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014 (the "2014 Act") in practice. An employee who alleges to have been dismissed, penalised or threatened with penalisation for having made a protected disclosure (or whistleblowing) can bring a complaint before the Workplace Relations Commission ("WRC") under the 2014 Act. Further, an employee who claims to have been dismissed or claims to have suffered some other penalisation wholly or mainly for having made a protected disclosure can also apply to the Circuit Court for interim relief pending the outcome of the WRC complaint.

The recently published High Court decision of Brett J in Breban v. Catch Security Systems [2025] IEHC 366 ("Breban") is an informative decision for employers who seek to assert section 5(5) in the defence of both substantive claims and interim relief claims under the 2014 Act, i.e., that a disclosure is not a protected