Following from the enactment of the Protected Disclosures Act 2014, the Department has put a policy and procedures in place to provide information to and assist workers who wish to make protected disclosures. The Policy and procedures are made available on www.welfare.ie.
All submissions made are assessed by a designated group of senior managers and investigations are then carried out where deemed necessary.
The Department has received thirty five submissions, a large proportion of which were from one individual, since the legislation was introduced in 2014. Twenty-nine cases have been fully dealt with by Jun 2019, of which no action was necessary in 25 cases.
The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection is committed to fostering an appropriate environment for addressing concerns relating to potential wrongdoing in the workplace and to providing the necessary support for staff that raise genuine concerns.