Whistleblowers' charter an important first step

In a week when President Mary McAleese reminded everyone that we were "mad as hell" with those who had aggravated the recession through reckless banking practices in particular, there was one small measure of comfort in the news last Friday that the Government is to fast-track legislation to give blanket legal protection to whistleblowers who report corruption to the appropriate authorities. The Minister for Justice is to bring before the Cabinet proposals to overhaul existing anti-corruption laws, part of which will be to afford whistleblowers complete protection for telling what they know about so-called white collar crime in all its forms. "It will promise protection to any person, in any sector, reporting suspicions of corruption in good faith," said Justice Minister Dermot Ahern. The minister's plans were outlined last week amidst a background of public demands for criminal prosecutions to be taken against senior figures in the banking sector found to be involved in wrongdoing or corrupt practices. The new laws are expected to be enacted before the autumn. Not for the first time, Mrs McAleese last week in New York reflected accurately the mood of the country - the sense of outrage being felt by Irish citizens when she said that ordinary people felt hurt and angry about the revelations about what had gone on in banking circles, in particular, saying that Ireland had been landed in this predicament by "once-trusted individuals and institutions". With public trust in banking institutions so severely eroded and damaged, a robust regulatory regime is essential to restoring some semblance of trust. That in itself, however, is not sufficient. There also needs to be trust in politicians and legislators to bring to book those whose actions have saddled the next generations of Irish people with the millstone of Nama and the higher taxes that will inevitably have to be borne to clean up the banking sector of toxic property loans. White collar crime cases can be difficult to prosecute and complex financial data can, understandably, be bewildering to juries, as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) James Hamilton acknowledged last week. Ireland has a poor record in terms of prosecuting such crime but a whistleblower's charter should at least make it easier to prosecute cases, legal sources believe. Internationally, whistleblowers are considered very important when it comes to successfully fighting corporate crime and cases in the United States and Canada involving corruption have been aided by having witnesses on the stand with intimate knowledge of an alleged crime as they testify on behalf of the prosecution. Many politicians in this country now believe enactment of this type of legislation is vital to ensure that many of the malpractices that led to the current economic crisis are stamped out once and for all. At the present time, there is virtually no protection for whistleblowers in the financial services and business sectors, while whistleblower codes and guidance throughout the public service are sparse. There are cases where information which is in the public interest does not get revealed because individual workers justifiably fear penalisation by their employer in the absence of measures to protect them if they make such disclosures. There have been enough cases where the absence of legislation has allowed illegal and unacceptable practices to continue unchecked - and the taxpayers of Ireland are footing the bill for these mistakes now. The DPP himself has admitted it is time to examine the issue of introducing a general whistleblowers' charter because, in many instances, if there is no whistleblower witness, it is impossible to build a case. Mr Ahern's move may only be a small step in trying to build cases against anyone who has done wrong, but in the fullness of time it may well be considered an important one if Ireland can successful bring cases against people whose recklessness has cost this country and its people dear.