Plans for whistleblower referendum abandoned
The vote had been expected to take place alongside the presidential election in October, but Attorney General Máire Wheelan has not approved the wording.
Fianna Fáil said the matter highlights confusion in Government over the issue as Taoiseach Enda Kenny had strongly indicated in the Dáil last week that the referendum would go ahead.
The protection for whistleblowers who pass sensitive information about alleged wrong-doing to TDs was a Labour election pledge and enshrined in the programme for government.
Fianna Fáil’s spokesman on public expenditure and reform, Michael McGrath, backed the decision to postpone the referendum if the Attorney General was not happy with the proposed wording. But he accused the Government of not taking constitutional reforms seriously enough.
Public Reform Minister Brendan Howlin said he hoped the matter would go before voters sometime next year.
It had been expected to be voted on along with changes on judicial pay and the right of Oireachtas committees to hear evidence following the controversial court ruling in the Abbeylara case.
Labour and Fine Gael had sought a change in the Constitution regarding whistleblowers after Mr Howlin and MEP Jim Higgins were put under pressure to reveal sources of information to the Morris Tribunal.
The controversy arose after Mr Higgins passed on information about alleged Garda corruption in Donegal to Mr Howlin, then Labour’s justice spokesman in 2000.
Those specific allegations proved unfounded, but the Morris inquiry did uncover other instances of corruption in Donegal.
