From Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform
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The Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform Paschal Donohoe has published a report detailing the number of protected disclosures submitted to public bodies in 2023.
A protected disclosure is the reporting of information by a worker about potential wrongdoing in the workplace. Section 22(4) of the Protected Disclosures Act (as amended), provides that the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform shall publish data collected by public bodies concerning the number of reports of wrongdoing they receive.
Building on the data concerning the aggregate number of protected disclosures that had been collected in previous years, this is the first year that this data has been published. The Act provides for a statutory basis for the provision of such data.
This data set includes reports made internally to public bodies, reports made externally to prescribed persons and reports made to, and transmitted by, the Office of the Protected Disclosures Commissioner.
Aggregate data was submitted to the European Commission last year concerning the number of reports. This is a requirement of the Directive (EU) 2019/1937 which is given effect in Irish law by the Amended Protected Disclosures Act. This data covered the number of reports submitted externally to prescribed persons which are mostly regulators in an Irish context.
Minister Donohoe said:
"My department is committed to building trust in Government through accountability and transparency and to taking an evidence-based approach to policy making. It is important to ensure that legislative and policy decisions are being informed by accurate data. This must be done so with care in order to safeguard confidentiality and support the protections against penalisation provided in the Act.
“Ireland has one of the strongest whistleblower protection laws in world. The legislation is in place to allow an environment of openness and integrity in workplaces across the country. This data provides an appropriate overview of the protected disclosures landscape in Ireland. It is my intention that this will be the first of a number of reports that will help to assemble a vital data set to be used in evaluating the performance of this Act.”
Over 1,100 reports of wrongdoing were submitted to public bodies in 2023. A majority, nearly 1,000 of these, were submitted to regulatory bodies. Of the reports, 734 were deemed to require further follow up, with 161 being sent for further proceedings.
The Protected Disclosures Act protects workers from penalisation for speaking up about wrongdoing in the workplace. The Act provides a range of channels – both internal and external – for workers to make protected disclosures. This ensures that if one channel fails to operate correctly, workers have access to alternative avenues to report their concerns.
The 2014 Act was substantially overhauled by the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Act 2022 which commenced in full on 1 January 2023. The amended Act established the Office of the Protected Disclosures Commissioner (OPDC) and provided that the Ombudsman is also the Protected Disclosures Commissioner. It gives effect in Ireland to EU Directive 2019/1937 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law ("the Whistleblowing Directive") and also addresses a number of issues with the implementation of the Act identified in the 2018 Statutory Review of the legislation.
Section 22 of the amended Act provides that the Minister shall publish, in aggregate form, the information provided to him by public bodies in respect of the number of reports of wrongdoing received.
The report also includes:
The Annual Report provides a brief overview of the data. The full figures are available in Annex 1 which is published alongside the report.
Future reports will be published in subsequent years to add to the data already gathered.