Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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577. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of a protected disclosure made to his Department in 2018 (details supplied); if his Department accepted the disclosure at the time; and if his Department investigated the matters to a conclusion. [35957/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Arising from a complaint received in 2020, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine carried out a review and found that a protected disclosure made in May 2018 had not been processed in accordance with the Department’s official procedures.

The review found that the disclosure had been overlooked when the official involved was, at that time, actively involved in dealing with similar, related complaints and disclosures all emanating from the same Discloser and relating to the same events in late 2016/early 2017.

At the time of receipt, the Department was awaiting Labour Court decisions on two of the Discloser’s previous complaints. The Court’s decisions, copied to the Department on 30th July 2018, did not support the Discloser's complaints. On 21st August, the Discloser withdrew a complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission on the Department’s handling of their protected disclosure relating to the 2016/2017 event. The Department’s officials did not realise that the withdrawal was not in respect of the May 2018 disclosure.

To remedy this omission, the 2020 review recommended that the May 2018 disclosure be processed by an official not involved with the original review. The disclosure was then allocated to a senior official who had no prior involvement with the case. Having examined the disclosure, the official decided to engage the services of an independent external specialist who carried out an investigation. That investigation, which concluded in May 2021, found that there had been no wrongdoing as alleged in the May 2018 disclosure. The Discloser was informed of this outcome on 4th June 2021 and the Department considers this matter to be concluded.