Kierans, Lauren
(2023)
Whistleblowing Litigation and Legislation in Ireland: Are There Lessons to be Learned?
Industrial Law Journal, 53 (2).
pp. 173-205.
ISSN 0305-9332
Abstract
The Protected Disclosures Act 2014 is Ireland’s main workplace whistleblowing legislation. It will be amended by the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Act 2022
on 1 January 2023 on foot of Ireland’s obligation to transpose into national law
Directive 2019/1937/EU of the European Parliament and the Council of 23 October
2019 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law. This paper
addresses the question of whether, in amending the 2014 Act, there were lessons
that could have been learnt from the experience in the UK in the operation of its
whistleblowing legislation. In answering this question, the findings of an analysis
of the case law under the 2014 Act between 15 July 2014 and 15 July 2020 are presented and discussed. In conducting the case law analysis, specific issues were assessed, including, procedural issues concerning the forum for the taking of a claim,
costs, fees, processing times, and time limits for presenting penalisation claims and
substantive issues regarding the type of claim and the success rate. The research established that there are deficiencies in the 2014 Act, and in some of its amendments
under the 2022 Act. It also established that there is an inequity in the treatment
under the legislation of ‘employees’ and workers other than employees. The author
concludes that to address these procedural and substantive deficiencies and inequities, Ireland should have gone beyond the minimum standards of the Directive and
looked to the UK for guidance.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
whistleblowing legislation; Union law; Ireland; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Law |
| Item ID: |
18969 |
| Identification Number: |
https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwad009 |
| Depositing User: |
Lauren Kierans
|
| Date Deposited: |
03 Oct 2024 10:50 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Industrial Law Journal |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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