I refer the Deputy to the provisions of the Protected Disclosures Bill, 2013 which is currently being considered by the Oireachtas. Under Section 8 of the Bill a disclosure can be made by any worker who is or was employed in a public body to a Minister of the Government on whom any function in relation to the public body is conferred or imposed any enactment. It is my understading that while, as is currently the case, the Minister is accountable to the Dáil in respect of the action taken in respect of any such disclosure, it is not proposed to adopt the approach set out in the Deputy's question in the Bill. As the Deputy's question implicitly acknowledges, it is of course not practicable for all communications to my Department that could potentially relate to any form of wrongdoing to come personally to my attention. However it is important that individuals who wish to highlight wrongdoing have a clear channel of communication to do so either to my office or officials in my Department. In this regard, under the Protected Disclosures Bill each public body is required to put in place internal procedures for dealing with disclosures and, in addition, the Labour Relations Commission is currently preparing a statutory code of practice in relation to this area.
