Whistleblowing Laws - What Will It Mean for Employers?

Given the controversies of the last few weeks culminating in Garda Commissioner Callinan’s resignation on Tuesday, many employers may be asking themselves what is their responsibility if an employee makes a disclosure and could therefore be categorised as a “whistleblower”. As Garda Callinan discovered, sometimes a disclosure may harm the name of the employer/company and yet the information may be of significant public interest to merit disclosure.


Background

Historically Irish people have viewed this area with suspicion, often equating the actions of a whistleblower with those of a tell tale or worse still, an informer. For an employee this is often coupled with a sense of loyalty to the