Irish whistleblower protection law "Protected Disclosures Act"

Ireland's Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Act 2022 rebuilt the country's whistleblower rules. It took effect on 1 January 2023 and brought EU Directive 2019/1937 into Irish law. The Act sets up a state Commissioner, widens who is protected, and lets fines reach 250,000 euros. Here is what it asks of employers and what it gives workers.

Who does the Protected Disclosures Act protect?

The Act protects almost anyone who learns of wrongdoing through work. That reaches well beyond staff on the payroll. It now covers volunteers, unpaid trainees, board members, shareholders, and job applicants. Former workers stay protected after they leave. People who help the reporter, like a colleague or a family member, are covered too.

The 2022 Act also dropped the old good-faith test. A worker no longer has to show a pure motive. What matters is whether the information points to real wrongdoing, not why the person came forward.

"The motivation for making a disclosure is irrelevant to whether or not it is a protected disclosure."
Section 5(7), Protected Disclosures Act 2014, as amended

There is one catch to the new motive rule. If chasing the wrongdoing was not the main reason for the report, a court can cut any damages by up to 25 per cent. The protection still stands, but the payout can shrink.

What counts as a relevant wrongdoing?

A relevant wrongdoing is the kind of workplace problem the Act lets you report. The list is wide. Through the internal channel or an outside route, a worker can flag:

• crimes, whether already done or likely;
• breaches of a legal duty, beyond a simple breach of the worker's own contract;
• miscarriages of justice;
• risks to health and safety;
• damage to the environment;
• the misuse of public money;
• an unlawful or improper use of public office; and
• any attempt to hide any of the above.

One thing was carved out in 2022. A purely personal grievance no longer counts. A dispute that affects only you, such as a clash with a manager about your own terms, belongs in the normal grievance process. It does not fit the whistleblowing channel.

What is the Office of the Protected Disclosures Commissioner?

The Commissioner is the Act's headline new institution. It is a state office that receives reports and sends each one to the body best placed to act, such as a regulator. The role sits with the Ombudsman, who holds both posts at once. It gives workers a safe address when they do not know where else to turn.

"There is hereby established an office [...] as the Office of the Protected Disclosures Commissioner [...] The holder of the office of Commissioner shall be the person who, for the time being, holds the office of Ombudsman."
Section 10A, Protected Disclosures Act 2014, as amended

The office made its mark fast. In its first year, the Protected Disclosures Commissioner received 283 reports. It passed 267 of them to the regulators best placed to deal with them and handled 14 itself. For a brand-new channel, that is a busy start.

How do you set up the internal reporting channel?

If you employ 50 or more people, you must run an internal reporting channel. Public bodies had to comply from the start, on 1 January 2023. Private firms with 50 to 249 staff got until 17 December 2023. The channel must let workers report in writing or by voice and keep their identity secret.

You name an impartial person or team to handle reports. They must confirm a report within 7 days and give feedback within 3 months. Accepting anonymous reports is a choice, not a duty.

"[N]othing in this Act shall oblige any person to accept and follow-up on anonymous reports [...] but a person may, if he or she considers it appropriate to do so, follow-up on a matter the subject of an anonymous report."
Section 5A, Protected Disclosures Act 2014, as amended

Anonymity is not a loophole for employers, though. If an anonymous reporter is later identified and punished, they get the full protection of the Act.

The Act also asks for an honest paper trail. The firm must keep a secure record of every report, and the designated person has to follow up with care and report back on what they found. The person must act free from conflict. Cutting corners on the channel is itself one of the offences the Act punishes.

WeMoral gives the impartial person you designate one encrypted inbox that only they can open, and it timestamps every action on a report. That matters in Ireland, where the employer carries the burden of proof once a worker claims penalisation, and a dismissed worker can seek interim relief at the Circuit Court within 21 days. The Act lets you appoint an outside party to run the channel, so WeMoral can take that seat, or your own designated person signs in. It complies with Ireland's Protected Disclosures Act and ships as court-ready whistleblowing software. You can switch on the internal channel in a day.

Where else can a worker take a report?

The internal channel is only the first option. The Act lays out several outside routes, and a worker can often go straight to one of them.

• A prescribed person. These are named regulators, each tied to a field, such as the data or financial watchdog. A worker reports to the one that fits the problem.
• The Commissioner. Where no prescribed person fits, or the worker is unsure, the report goes here. The office then sends it on to the right body.
• A relevant Minister. Staff in public bodies can report to the Minister in charge in set cases.
• Public disclosure. Going to the media or the wider public is protected only in narrow cases, such as a clear danger to the public or a failure of the other routes.

Each outside route still has to keep the reporter's identity secret, and each carries the same 7-day and 3-month deadlines as the internal one.

What penalties does the Act carry?

The Act backs its duties with criminal fines. Penalising a whistleblower, bringing a vexatious case against them, or failing to set up a channel can each be an offence. On indictment the fine reaches 250,000 euros, with up to two years in prison. The lighter route, on summary conviction, carries a class A fine of 5,000 euros.

The Act also reaches the people at the top. Where a firm commits an offence with the consent or neglect of a director, manager, or secretary, that person can be charged as well as the company.

What can a penalised whistleblower recover?

First, penalisation is read broadly. It is any work-related act, prompted by the report, that harms the worker. The Act spells out a long list, which includes:

• dismissal, suspension, or lay-off;
• demotion or a blocked promotion;
• a cut in wages, or a change to hours or place of work;
• discipline, coercion, harassment, or ostracism;
• a poor reference or performance review;
• blacklisting across an industry; and
• the threat of any of these.

Ireland offers some of Europe's strongest remedies. A worker dismissed for a protected disclosure can win up to 260 weeks' pay, five years' worth. That is five times the normal unfair-dismissal cap. For penalisation short of dismissal, or for people who are not employees, the limit is 15,000 euros.

Speed is built in. A dismissed worker can ask the Circuit Court for interim relief within 21 days, which can keep them in their job while the case runs. The burden of proof is reversed too. Once a worker shows they reported and were harmed, the employer has to prove the harm was not payback.

Ireland built a generous system on paper: a dedicated Commissioner, five years of pay for a wrongful dismissal, and an employer who has to prove their own innocence. The harder question is culture. Reports keep climbing, yet many workers still fear what follows once they speak. The law has set the floor high. Whether Irish workplaces rise to meet it is the one thing the Act cannot legislate. To see how Ireland sits against the rest of the continent, read our guide to whistleblower laws by country.