I thank the Deputies for using Private Members' time to facilitate this debate on protection for whistleblowers. From the bottom of my heart, I welcome every one of the whistleblowers who had the bravery to come here and be with us today. I will also say a word for those who simply cannot speak up, the people who have been beaten by the system and battered by the State, for whom a protected disclosure represented, in some instances, the end of their lives and certainly the end of any mental peace they had. The Minister of State, Deputy Michael Healy-Rae, rambled in and said: The Protected Disclosures Act 2014 is Ireland's national whistleblower protection law. This legislation was designed to protect workers from penalisation for speaking up about wrongdoing in the workplace. He did not stay for the whole debate, but I hope he will look back at it. I ask him to go up to the Gallery and ask those people whether they feel protected, if they feel the State protected them. Before I was elected, I was a trade union official and I have sat with people whose lives were destroyed because they spoke up. They wanted to make things better. The Minister of State might never know their names, but I have sat in their living rooms and kitchens and they have sat in my car. A nurse in the west of Ireland spoke up about mismanagement in the health service and her hair fell out, her marriage was destroyed and her children did not even recognise their mother any more. It started with no access to night duty or overtime. She was ostracised. There were rumours. The Minister of State will not see her in the Gallery because her life was destroyed. There is no protection for whistleblowers. I urge the Minister of State to go up to the Gallery and ask them whether they feel protected and if they do not, to withdraw the Government's amendment and do the decent thing.

Sentiment score: 0.16