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Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland

Whistleblower protection legislation comes into effect today

The Protected Disclosures Act 2014 covers all employees, including gardaí and members of the Defence Forces.

MINISTER FOR PUBLIC Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin has announced the commencement of legislation protecting whistleblowers.

The Protected Disclosures Act 2014 provides protection to all employees, including contractors, agency workers, gardaí and members of the Defence Forces.

Under the legislation was put in place to protect the identity of a person providing such information and does not contain any ‘good faith’ or public interest tests which could deter people from making protected disclosures.

Whistleblowers can receive compensation of up to five years remuneration if dismissed for making a protected disclosure.

Speaking about the legislation coming into effect, Minister Howlin said that it “sets a new standard in terms of international best practice for whistleblower protection”.

“It sends out a very clear message that whistleblowers’ concerns must be listened to and acted on and those who make such reports should not be penalised for doing so.”

Read: Scrap 3-person GSOC, set-up whistleblower ‘hotline’: Here’s what needs to change, Minister told >

Read: Whistleblower says builders paid by State are defrauding the welfare system >

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10 Comments
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    Mute Declan Sweeney
    Favourite Declan Sweeney
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    Oct 23rd 2020, 3:04 PM

    The situation in NI is way worse than we have down here, even the figures in hospitels and ICY are simuler eventhough we have 2.61 more in population.

    There have been
    32,286 confirmed cases, – that equivalent in the ROI- 84266
    6,893 in the last seven days. – that equivalent in the ROI would be 17,991

    They are complaining about it, if we had them figures down here we would be all locked in our houses.

    48
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    Mute Jonnie Marre
    Favourite Jonnie Marre
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    Oct 23rd 2020, 3:05 PM

    @Declan Sweeney: ok yea

    6
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    Mute Bobby
    Favourite Bobby
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    Oct 23rd 2020, 3:32 PM

    @Declan Sweeney: Just to comment, I don’t necessarily think ‘cases’ is a good measure of how well a country is performing. For example, we have exponentially increased our testing rates, which has subsequently led to an increased number in cases. That doesn’t necessarily mean that we are currently losing this covid battle, if anything, its a major improvement.

    Better measures of how well a country is responding would be mortality and hospital/ICU numbers

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    Mute Michael
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    Oct 23rd 2020, 3:53 PM

    @Bobby: But yet retail is still open! Unbelievable!

    5
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    Mute Declan Sweeney
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    Oct 23rd 2020, 5:41 PM

    @Bobby:

    Yess and with NI they have 2 figures for deaths,
    DOH says they have had 639 deaths from the viris but that only counts for those who die in hospitels mostly
    \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\the stats office who deals with in hospitels, home, nursing homes and other places put the amount of deats up to Oct. 9th at 902 cases, so when they release the figures again that would be more than likely alot higher.
    Numbers in hospitels and in ICU are both very high taking into consideration that we have 2.61 times the population

    2
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    Mute Michael Keegan
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    Oct 23rd 2020, 3:26 PM

    Sinn Fein complaining about possibly fines in the South, unwilling to tell people to stay in the North during these unprecedented times

    18
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    Mute Declan Sweeney
    Favourite Declan Sweeney
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    Oct 23rd 2020, 5:44 PM

    @Michael Keegan:

    According to themselves they are 2 different parties, SF in NI and SF in the ROI

    3
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    Mute Anna Carr
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    Oct 23rd 2020, 3:06 PM

    God that’s awful and it only accounts for 6 counties yet they’re higher than the Republic. I don’t understand it, unless they’re popping back and forth from England

    21
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    Mute Dermy
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    Oct 23rd 2020, 3:17 PM

    @Anna Carr: if you think people in NI constantly travelling back and forth to England is the issue then yes, you are correct. You do not understand it.

    25
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    Mute Bran Brans
    Favourite Bran Brans
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    Oct 23rd 2020, 7:01 PM

    @Dermy: You obviously don’t know about the secret tunnel we have? Oh oh. This message will self distruct in 3……2…..

    1
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    Mute Vladimir Macro
    Favourite Vladimir Macro
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    Oct 23rd 2020, 5:03 PM

    https://youtu.be/Qgn4B2Iq2cg

    This debate should of happened in February.

    The reason it didn’t was because of vested interests.

    2
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