Paul Murphy praises whistleblowers, condemns weak protections
Paul Murphy spoke in the Dáil in support of whistleblowers, praising their courage and accusing the government of offering inadequate legal protections. He recounted specific cases and criticised how agencies and legislation have failed whistleblowers in practice.
Paul Murphy thanked those who brought the motion and paid tribute to whistleblowers in the gallery and beyond. He described meeting many whistleblowers in the course of his work and said they are often ordinary people who decide to do the right thing when they see wrongdoing.
He listed a range of alleged abuses that whistleblowers have exposed - springs inserted wrongly into children, unnecessary operations on children, abuse in care homes, wrongdoing in the Irish prison service, and mistreatment of animals and harassment of workers at Dublin Zoo. He said major public scandals often begin with a whistleblower.
Paul Murphy outlined the personal cost to whistleblowers, including serious harassment and life-changing consequences. He referenced Noel McGree as an example who was evicted with his family into homelessness despite later vindication, and noted many others who never obtain justice and are forced out of their workplaces.
He recounted the case of Margot Hannan, a healthcare assistant who made a protected disclosure to the HSE about adult safeguarding failures, breaches of infection control guidance, and deficiencies in end-of-life care and communication. He said a three-year investigation was not independent, the HSE failed to publish or provide recommendations from the roughly 500-page report, and Hannan experienced stonewalling, reprisals and constructive dismissal. He described a second anonymous disclosure Hannan made to HICWA about suspected gerontophilia and infection control concerns; HICWA found prima facie evidence and referred the matter to the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI). He said the NMBI refused to treat the anonymous report as a protected disclosure, now wishes to treat it as a fitness-to-practice complaint that would require disclosure of Hannan's identity, has requested consent to release her name to protect the nurse's right to fair procedures, and that no investigation has been carried out while the nurse in question continues to have unsupervised access to nonverbal patients with dementia. He said Hannan wants healthcare workers to be enabled to make anonymous protected disclosures, including through a solicitor, as is standard practice in other jurisdictions.
Paul Murphy criticised the government's amendment for presenting the impression that protections are sufficient when, he argued, lived experience shows otherwise. He said the official response amounts to acknowledging whistleblowers but asserting legislation is fine, which he contends is not the reality for many who speak out.
He corrected one point he previously made about Dublin Zoo funds, clarifying that the funds used to build an extension to the zoo director's house came from unrestricted funds and not from a public fundraising appeal. He said he stood over his other remarks regarding abuse of animals and harassment of workers at Dublin Zoo.
Tribute to whistleblowers
Paul Murphy thanked those who brought the motion and paid tribute to whistleblowers in the gallery and beyond. He described meeting many whistleblowers in the course of his work and said they are often ordinary people who decide to do the right thing when they see wrongdoing.
Examples of wrongdoing raised
He listed a range of alleged abuses that whistleblowers have exposed - springs inserted wrongly into children, unnecessary operations on children, abuse in care homes, wrongdoing in the Irish prison service, and mistreatment of animals and harassment of workers at Dublin Zoo. He said major public scandals often begin with a whistleblower.
Harms faced by whistleblowers
Paul Murphy outlined the personal cost to whistleblowers, including serious harassment and life-changing consequences. He referenced Noel McGree as an example who was evicted with his family into homelessness despite later vindication, and noted many others who never obtain justice and are forced out of their workplaces.
Margot Hannan's account
He recounted the case of Margot Hannan, a healthcare assistant who made a protected disclosure to the HSE about adult safeguarding failures, breaches of infection control guidance, and deficiencies in end-of-life care and communication. He said a three-year investigation was not independent, the HSE failed to publish or provide recommendations from the roughly 500-page report, and Hannan experienced stonewalling, reprisals and constructive dismissal. He described a second anonymous disclosure Hannan made to HICWA about suspected gerontophilia and infection control concerns; HICWA found prima facie evidence and referred the matter to the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI). He said the NMBI refused to treat the anonymous report as a protected disclosure, now wishes to treat it as a fitness-to-practice complaint that would require disclosure of Hannan's identity, has requested consent to release her name to protect the nurse's right to fair procedures, and that no investigation has been carried out while the nurse in question continues to have unsupervised access to nonverbal patients with dementia. He said Hannan wants healthcare workers to be enabled to make anonymous protected disclosures, including through a solicitor, as is standard practice in other jurisdictions.
Critique of government approach
Paul Murphy criticised the government's amendment for presenting the impression that protections are sufficient when, he argued, lived experience shows otherwise. He said the official response amounts to acknowledging whistleblowers but asserting legislation is fine, which he contends is not the reality for many who speak out.
Clarification on Dublin Zoo comment
He corrected one point he previously made about Dublin Zoo funds, clarifying that the funds used to build an extension to the zoo director's house came from unrestricted funds and not from a public fundraising appeal. He said he stood over his other remarks regarding abuse of animals and harassment of workers at Dublin Zoo.
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Transcript
those who brought forward this motion which we support mostly thanks and I'd like to pay tribute to the whistleblowers who are in the gallery and those who are at home and elsewhere it's actually one of the privileges of my job is that I get to meet whistleblowers while they're in the process of whistleblowing, get to work with them as they're trying to bring justice, do good in whatever sphere they're working in and what's kind of interesting is I've met a whole bunch of whistleblowers at this stage working in different areas of the world or of kind of industry and you know these aren't people who just to look at are extraordinary person, they look like just anybody else, you know there isn't a sign above their head saying heroic person, extremely brave person these are kind of ordinary people who just take a decision to do the right thing that they see wrong being done, be it springs inserted wrongly into children, be it operations, unnecessary operations being given to children, be it abuse taking place in our care homes, be it wrongdoing in the Irish prison service be it abuse or mistreatment of animals and of workers at Dublin Zoo they see things that are taking place that they know are wrong and decide I'm going to do the right thing about this and what opens up for them then I think in some cases isn't really what they expect you know they're going to do the right thing they make a protected disclosure and then in many cases they face like very very serious consequences in terms of their whole life very serious harassment we've heard a lot correctly about Noel McGree who has ended up being evicted with his family into homelessness which flows from protected disclosures for which he was vindicated in the Irish prison service but steadfastly these people do the right thing and you know many times we see on prime time or whatever some major scandal break out that then becomes a major story in here and out of which some change begins to happen and I think many times the public doesn't know that that starts in most cases with a whistleblower who calls out the wrongdoing but they're also these are the cases that we know of in many cases there's whistleblowers there's people who have contacted me who have blown the whistle on various things and never get justice who get harassed out of their workplace get forced you know never never get what they have have sought to do by speaking out and like the problem with the government's approach and the problem is with the government's amendment is basically to say oh yeah fair play to whistleblowers but everything is fine here in terms of legislation when the reality of people's experiences is that everything is very far from being okay I want to briefly just recount one whistleblower's experience who's in the gallery Margot Hannan Margot was a healthcare assistant she made a protected disclosure to the HSE regarding serious adult safeguarding failures breaches of national infection control guidelines deficiencies in end of life care and communication issues that resulted in a three year investigation which was not independent of the HSE and at the end of which the HSE failed to publish or provide recommendations from the approximately 500 page report throughout this period she experienced stonewalling reprisals and ultimately constructive dismissal she made a second protected disclosure to HICWA anonymously regarding serious concerns about suspected gerontophilia and poor infection control practices by a nurse HICWA found prima facie evidence that wrongdoing may have occurred and referred the matter to the nursing and midwifery board of Ireland however the NMBI incorrectly refused to treat the matter as a protected disclosure solely because it had been submitted anonymously they now wish to treat it as a fitness to practice practice complaint which would require disclosure of her identity the NMBI requested consent to release her name to protect the nurses right to fair procedures as required by law it appears to conflict with the spirit and intent of current protected disclosures legislation as well as the EU whistleblowing directive to date no investigation has been carried out and the nurse in question continues to have unsupervised access to nonverbal patients with dementia she says that her strongest wish is that healthcare workers be enabled to make protected disclosures anonymously including through a solicitor as is standard practice in other jurisdictions just finally I want to take a moment to correct the record in relation to one point I made with regard to the use of funds by Dublin Zoo to build an extension to the zoo director's house to clarify these funds came from unrestricted funds not a public fundraising appeal I stand over all the other remarks I made in relation to abuse of animals and harassment of workers at Dublin Zoo this is about whistleblowers and I'd like to thank the whistleblowers who bravely brought these important matters of public concern out into the open at great personal cost yes there's no smaller people who are focused on they lived on this means bought what are these areas in themoi that have what are Ohh to the house actually to know