Protected Disclosures

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 March 2022

Tuesday, 8 March 2022

Questions (355)

Catherine Murphy

Question:

355. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Education the number of protected disclosures received by her Department in each of the years 2019 to 2021 and to date in 2022, in tabular form; if an external contractor has been engaged regarding a protected disclosure over that time period; if so, the cost of same; and the number of protected disclosures that were rejected, accepted and that remain under review for the time period in question. [13048/22]

Written answers

Minister for Education

The following table gives a breakdown by year since 2019 of the number of applications made to me under Section 8 of the Protected Disclosures Act, 2014, the number that were rejected, accepted and that remain under review/ongoing for the time period in question.

Year	Applications Received	Protected Disclosures Rejected	Protected Disclosures Accepted	Protected Disclosures that remain under review/ongoing	Number of Protected Disclosures where an external contractor has been engaged
2019	6	5	1	0	0
2020	5	2	3	2	0
2021	9	0	9	4	0
To date in 2022	3	0	3	3	0
Total	23	7	16	9	0

There have been a total of 23 applications for protected disclosures made for the period in question. This figure relates to protected disclosures that were made under Section 8 of the Protected Disclosures Act 2014 by workers in the education sector. There were no applications in which an external contractor was engaged regarding a protected disclosure over that time.