Minister For Employment Micheál Martin will today introduce a "whistleblowing" amendment to the Employment Permits Bill to give "important protections" to overseas employees who report wrongdoings by employers.
Mr Martin told the Dáil the provision was part of a "sectoral" approach by the Government to provide protection for whistleblowers on a "case by case" basis, rather than "await the possible resolution of wider, complex legal issues".
Similar protections had been introduced in other legislation, including the Protections for Persons Reporting Child Abuse Act, provisions in the Competition Act and the Garda Síochána Act.
He was responding to Labour leader Pat Rabbitte who reintroduced his Whistleblowers' Bill, first moved in 1999 and accepted by the Government but not implemented.
The Labour leader reintroduced the Bill in the wake of the Neary affair at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
"Developments may take place in other countries and reforms may sweep through the most hidebound and bloated of international institutions but the PDs and Fianna Fáil see no need to change the way we do our business here," he said.
Mr Rabbitte said the real reason the Government "reversed engines and decided not to proceed with an important piece of legislation they had supported at Second Stage is that they were afraid it might offend the multinationals".
He said the Bill would "radically challenge the culture of secrecy that surrounds Irish business and public life".
"We do not have in this country a developed sense of corporate morality or of personal responsibility in the public sphere. It is always someone else's job to shout 'stop'."
Mr Martin said he would ask the chief whip to remove the 1999 Bill from the order paper.
The sectoral approach would be more encompassing than the specific provisions of the Bill.
"A single, all-encompassing legislative proposal on whistleblowing would be complex and cumbersome, take considerable time to enact, and would not be user-friendly to the general public."
Fine Gael's health spokesman Dr Liam Twomey said the legislation was about protecting patients.
Fergus O'Dowd (FG, Louth) said there should be advocates for and on behalf of patients.
