Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-17
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Helen McEntee (FG), Meath East

To be very clear - the legislation is very clear - while individuals may choose to talk about it, that does not allow us, legally, to talk about it. That is clearly set out in the legislation. Individuals chose to speak about it last night but that does not enable any other person to speak about it. I want to be very clear about that. The legislation was agreed by this House in 2014 and enhanced in 2022. What is really important about the legislation is that it was put in place to allow whistleblowers to come forward and to make sure there was an independent process that took these matters away from politicians, from myself and from anybody in this House, and rightly so. It was decided this would be the approach because of what happened in the past. That is why this legislation was enacted. I fully support it because we have seen over the years many people who have come forward and highlighted issues in the workplace. We should all welcome this. We should protect whistleblowers, make sure people feel they can come forward and when they do that there is an independent process. We also have to respect that process and make sure anybody who is the subject of a protected disclosure is afforded the protection of that independent process as well.
The Deputy mentioned my time as Minister for justice. The very first thing I did, the very first time I got into my car to go anywhere as Minister for justice, was to go to Castlerea to meet the colleagues of Detective Horkan, who were understandably devastated, and to meet his family whom I know are still going through an unbelievable trauma they will probably never be able to fully comprehend. I made it very clear at the time that my job as Minister was to make sure that gardaí, in doing their jobs, were protected, had what they needed, that the legislation was in place for them and that we provided the resources for them to make sure they were kept safe. I also introduced changes to make sure the oversight within An Garda Síochána was as strong as it could be.
Coupled with that, in 2020, the Garda anti-corruption unit was established in An Garda Síochána. This was to make sure any wrongdoing within An Garda Síochána was dealt with. Through the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act 2024, I strengthened the role of the board and the An Garda Síochána audit committee, which now have statutory roles in overseeing the appropriateness, efficiency and effectiveness of procedures in An Garda Síochána dealing with protected disclosures.
I also produced the legislation that established Fiosrú and the whole reason for that was to make sure that where complaints were made by gardaí about issues in An Garda Síochána, they would be dealt with more quickly. The process was too slow. There were too many elements to it. It was taking too long and not producing effective results-----

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-17