Protected Disclosures

Thursday, 25 March 2021

Questions (3, 4)

Catherine Murphy

Question:

3. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of protected disclosures received by his Department in each of the years 2017 to 2020 and to date in 2021; the number that were accepted as a protected disclosure; the number that were in part or fully examined by a third party or consultancy; the number of protected disclosures under investigation over this period; and the number that were finalised and the contents accepted and acted on. [16028/21]

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Catherine Murphy

Question:

4. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of protected disclosures received by his Department in each of the years 2017 to 2020 and to date in 2021 from officials within his Department; the number of officials who made protected disclosures over the period and who are now not working in his Department; and the number of protected disclosures received from retired officials of his Department over the period. [16046/21]

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Written answers

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment

I propose to take Questions Nos. 3 and 4 together.

I'm informed that my Department received three matters raised as protected disclosures and was copied on a fourth in 2017; one in 2018; two in 2019; two in 2020 and none to date in 2021. Following preliminary examination, six of these matters were considered protected disclosures. None of these six were raised by officials from the Department. In two of these cases the matters raised related to the business of the Department and were assigned for investigation by persons within the Department with the relevant expertise. These are finalised with no further action required. In the four other situations the matters raised were not the subject of areas of responsibility of the Department and had been also separately raised with the relevant Government Department.