Ibec raises ‘whistleblower’ fears

Ibec has criticised the Government for not carrying out a regulatory impact assessment on the proposed “whistleblower” legislation, ahead of the initial draft of laws being drawn up.

The legislation — the Protected Disclosure in the Public Interest Bill, 2012 — which is aimed at protecting workers who expose bad practices at corporate level, was up for discussion at yesterday’s sitting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, with Ibec and Transparency International Ireland (TI Ireland) giving their opinions.

Committee chairman Alex White said the publication of the draft heads of the bill is “welcome and necessary”, as “most people agree that the current legislation, in this area, is inadequate”. However Ibec’s head of policy and international affairs, Brendan Butler raised fears over no regulatory impact assessment being carried out — assessing the potential impact and effects of the legislation — and stressed the need for the legislation to be introduced “in a sensitive and sensible way”.