TI Ireland has published its third Speak Up report based on data collected from 1,400 whistleblowers, witnesses and victims of corruption who contacted the helpline from 2011 to the beginning of 2020. The highest number of calls to the helpline in the reporting period came from the Education sector, followed by the Police and Health sectors.
The Health sector generated the second largest number of whistleblower calls to the helpline and whistleblower reprisal continues to be a significant concern, accounting for 20% of all reports of retaliation from whistleblowers who contacted the Helpline over the period.
The report includes analysis of the EU Whistleblowing Directive, how it is likely to amend the Protected Disclosures Act 2014 and TI Ireland's recommendations for further reform. The recommendations include; extending access to the employment law system to all reporting persons, the removal of caps on compensation for awards to workers who are found by the Workplace Relations Commission to have suffered a detriment as a result of making a protected disclosure; and expanding the definition of relevant wrongdoings to include breaches of soft law mechanisms such as professional codes of conduct.
TI Ireland also published a list of recommendations it has made on how Ireland's anti-fraud and anti-corruption structures should be strengthened.