I want to begin by saying the response from Government was outrageous. We have whistleblowers here today who clearly fed into this fantastic motion that Independent Ireland put forward and all we got from the Minister of State was gaslighting. To say it is not a Bill and, therefore, he cannot back it is nonsense. Deputy Buckley and I introduced a Bill four years ago and it was not acted on. Also, this motion has recommendations in it. Then there is talk about the EU review. The whole reason for the changes in the whistleblower legislation the last time was the transposition of the EU directive. What came out of it from Government was weak. That is why we are here. I hope for a stronger response later on from Ministers. I will go back to the speech I had prepared but that angered me this morning. I commend all whistleblowers on everything they have done. The reason they are whistleblowers is that, fundamentally, they know the difference between what is right and what is wrong. These are people who saw injustice and used their voices to speak truth to power, and they continue to do so clearly to this day. To our great shame, so many whistleblowers have faced persecution as a result. They have lost their jobs, they have been bullied and blacklisted, and they have faced huge consequences in their professional and personal lives, including experiencing homelessness. The Irish people owe them our deepest gratitude. Without them, we would not know about many scandals that have been exposed over the years. Go raibh míle, míle maith agaibh and thank you for coming here today. I commend Independent Ireland for bringing forward the motion. It is deeply regrettable that despite the opportunity to change things three years ago, we are still in a situation whereby whistleblowers do not have the protections they should. The reason we know this is because we hear it from whistleblowers themselves. It is quite shocking to me that, next week, four years will have passed since 1 December 2021 when my colleague Deputy Pat Buckley and I introduced a Bill in an attempt to strengthen the transposition by the Government of the EU directive in 2022. Unfortunately, what the Government transposed at the end of the day was simply not strong enough. One of the cruellest elements of it was that it was not retrospective. To exclude those going through live proceedings at the time was unforgivable and a real kick in the teeth for them. At the time, I tabled an amendment to attempt to rectify this but it was not accepted. What we needed from the Government was to empower Ministers to gather all documents relevant to a protected disclosure made to them regarding their Departments or bodies under their authority and to pass this information on to the Attorney General in connection with the conduct of legal proceedings on behalf of the State. In July of this year, I said that when the Government was transposing the EU directive on protected disclosures, I was clear at the time, and I voiced significant concerns, that it was perhaps deliberately going to weaken the transposition. I said I felt the setting up of the protected disclosures office was a retrograde step and it removed protected disclosure as a political issue. Previously, an Opposition TD could deliver a protected disclosure to the relevant Minister and then seek to know what progress had been made. Now, Ministers can simply say it has been handed to the protected disclosures office and it has nothing to do with them any more. We have clearly been proven right on this, as have the campaigners. What we also needed from the Government was for the new Bill to include organisations of fewer than 50 people. Instead, it excluded them. This was a wrong decision. When dealing with this issue, it is also important to deal with the facts. Research shows that whistleblowers lose more than €40,000 in the course of their working lives as a result. As we have hard evidence on this, it is quite clear that financial supports should be part of any strengthening of the legislation. We see that in today's motion. Providing free legal aid and psychological services for whistleblowers, and removing the limitations on financial compensation that whistleblowers can win by way of redress, are important steps in this regard. Whatever the view of the Minister of State or me on the transposition of the EU directive, and whether at the time he believed it was strong enough, we have to deal with the reality of the situation now. We know that whistleblowers are still being wronged and still face harassment and backlash as a result of their bravery. If we know this, then we need to act on it. We have the ability to do so in this Chamber. Transparency International says whistleblowing is acknowledged as one of the most effective ways of stopping wrongdoing. Without whistleblowers, we would live in a very different society. We owe them this, and we need to finally acknowledge it as a State. Without firm action, wrongdoing will continue.

Sentiment score: 0.05