On the 12 October 2022, the Minister for Public Expenditure and
Reform, Michael McGrath, signed the Commencement Order for the
Protected Disclosures Amendment Act (the "2022
Act") which will take effect in its entirety from
1st January 2023. David McCarroll, Partner with
RDJ's Employment Team, takes an in depth look at the
obligations now arising for employers and what preparations need to
be made.
The Original 2014 Act
Back in 2014, following on from a range of national scandals and
public enquiries, the government introduced a landmark piece of
legislation in the form of the Protected Disclosures Act (the
"2014 Act"). The underlying purpose of
the 2014 Act was to protect "workers" who had
made "protected disclosures" from acts of
"penalisation" by their employer. The legal
threshold for a worker to be able avail of these protections varies
depending on whether the disclosure is made internally to their
employer, to a prescribed external body, to a Minister,
