I thank those who brought forward this motion, which we support. I mostly thank and pay tribute to the whistleblowers who are in the Gallery and those at home and elsewhere. One of the privileges of my job is that I get to meet whistleblowers while they are in the process of whistleblowing. I get to work with them as they are trying to bring justice and do good in whatever sphere they work in. I have met a whole bunch of whistleblowers at this stage working in different areas of the world or industry. What is interesting is these are not people who are extraordinary to look at. They look like anybody else. There is not a sign above their head that says they are a heroic and extremely brave person. These are ordinary people who take a decision to do the right thing. They see wrong being done, be it springs inserted wrongly into children, unnecessary operations on children, abuse taking place in our care homes, wrongdoings in the Irish Prison Service or abuse and mistreatment of animals and workers at Dublin Zoo. They see things taking place they know are wrong and decide that they will do the right thing about it. What opens up for them then is not really what they expect, in some cases. They go to do the right thing, they make a protected disclosure and then, in many cases, they face very serious consequences for their whole life. They face very serious harassment and we have correctly heard a lot about Noel McGree, who was evicted, with his family, into homelessness which flowed from protected disclosures about the Irish Prison Service, for which he was vindicated. Steadfastly, these people do the right thing. Many times, we see on "Prime Time" or whatever some major scandal that breaks and it then becomes a major story in here, out of which some change begins to happen. Many times the public does not know that starts, in most cases, with a whistleblower who calls out the wrongdoing. These are also the cases we know off. There are people who have contacted me who have blown the whistle on various things and never get justice. They get harassed out of their workplace and never get what they have sought by speaking out. The problem with the Government's approach and its amendment is that it is basically saying, "Fair play to the whistleblowers but everything is fine here in terms of legislation". However, the reality of people's experiences is that everything is very far from being okay. Briefly, I want to recount one whistleblower's experience who is in the Visitors Gallery, Margo Hannon. Margo was a healthcare assistant. She made a protected disclosure to the HSE regarding serious adult safeguarding failures, breaches of national infection control guidelines, deficiencies in end of life care and communications issues. That resulted in a three year investigation, which was not independent of the HSE, and at the end of which the HSE failed to publish or provide recommendations from the approximately 500 page report. Throughout this period, she experienced stonewalling, reprisals and ultimately, constructive dismissal. She made a second protected disclosure to HIQA anonymously regarding serious concerns about suspected gerontophilia and poor infection control practices by a nurse. HIQA found prima facie evidence that wrongdoing may have occurred and referred the matter to the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland, NMBI. However, the NMBI incorrectly refused to treat the matter as a protected disclosure, solely because it had been submitted anonymously. It now wishes to treat it as a fitness to practice complaint, which would require disclosure of her identity. The NMBI requested consent to release her name to protect the nurse's right to fair procedures "as required by law.". This appears to conflict with the spirit and intent of current protected disclosures legislation, as well as the EU whistleblowing directive. To date, no investigation has been carried out and the nurse in question continues to have unsupervised access to non-verbal patients with dementia. She says that her strongest wish is that healthcare workers be enabled to make protected disclosures anonymously, including through a solicitor, as is standard practice in other jurisdictions. Finally, I will take a moment to correct the record in relation to one point I made with regard to the use of funds by Dublin Zoo to build an extension to the zoo director's house. To clarify, these funds came from unrestricted funds and not a public fundraising appeal. I stand over all the other remarks I made in relation to abuse of animals and harassment of workers at Dublin Zoo - this is about whistleblowers. I thank the whistleblowers who bravely brought these important matters of public concern out into the open at great personal cost.

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