The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has published a
draft General Scheme of a proposed Protected Disclosure in the
Public Interest Bill.
The Minister indicated that the proposed legislation would
..."protect Whistleblowers who speak out against wrongdoing,
or cover-ups, whether in public or the private sector. This could
encompass, for example, criminal misconduct, corruption, the breach
of a legal obligation, risk to health and safety, damage to the
environment or gross mismanagement in the public service.
"
The purpose of the legislation would be to ensure the protection
of workers in all sectors of the economy against reprisals in
circumstances where they make a disclosure of information relating
to wrong-doing which comes to their attention in the workplace. The
proposed legislation would provide for a stepped disclosure regime
in which a number of distinct disclosure channels would be
available – internal, regulatory and external. The
provisions
