The internal reporting channel duty in Ireland
Ireland transposed Directive (EU) 2019/1937 with Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Act 2022 (No. 27 of 2022), amending the Protected Disclosures Act 2014. Below is what the national act itself says, with the sources, so your counsel can check every line.
2023-01-01 (commenced in full by S.I. No. 510/2022, Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Act 2022 (Commencement) Order 2022, made 6 October 2022)
50 or more employees (Protected Disclosures Act 2014, s.6(3) as inserted). Under s.6(4) the 50-employee threshold does not apply where the employer is a public body, or falls within the scope of the Union acts in Parts I.B and II of the Annex to the Directive (financial services, AML/CTF, transport safety, environment, offshore oil and gas), those employers must have a channel regardless of headcount. Under s.6(6) the Minister may by order extend the duty to classes of employers with fewer than 50 employees after a risk assessment.
17 December 2023. Section 6(5): subsection (3) does not come into effect for employers with not less than 50 but not more than 249 employees until 17 December 2023. The deferral expressly does not apply to public bodies or to entities within the Parts I.B and II Union acts, which were caught from 1 January 2023.
Optional, not required. Section 5A(1) of the 2014 Act: nothing in the Act obliges any person to accept and follow up on anonymous reports, but a person may follow up if he or she considers it appropriate. If the employer does accept them, s.6A(1)(g)(ii) requires the procedure to state the conditions, and s.6A(3) applies the full follow-up regime to those reports. Section 5A(2): an anonymous reporter who is later identified and penalised gets the same protection as any protected discloser.
Office of the Protected Disclosures Commissioner (within the Office of the Ombudsman), operational since 1 January 2023, plus sector-specific 'prescribed persons'. Summary prosecutions for failure to establish an internal channel may be brought by the Workplace Relations Commission (s.14A(7)).
Failure to establish the internal channel is a criminal offence. Section 14A(1)(e) makes it an offence to fail to comply with the s.6(3) requirement to establish, maintain and operate internal reporting channels and procedures. Section 14A(3): liable on summary conviction to a class A fine (up to EUR 5,000) or up to 12 months' imprisonment, or both; on conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding EUR 250,000 or up to 2 years' imprisonment, or both. Hindering or attempting to hinder a worker in making a report (s.14A(1)(a)) and penalisation (s.14A(1)(b)) carry the same maximum. Breach of the s.16 confidentiality duty: up to EUR 75,000 on indictment. Directors, managers and officers can be prosecuted personally alongside the body corporate (s.14A(6)).
Yes, expressly. Section 6(9): internal reporting channels and procedures may be (a) operated internally by a designated person or department, or (b) provided externally by a third party authorised in that behalf by the employer. Section 6A(5) applies the statutory channel requirements to that third party.
Group/resource sharing: s.6(10) lets employers with fewer than 250 employees share resources for receiving reports and for investigations, but each employer keeps its own duties on confidentiality (s.16), diligent follow-up (s.6A(1)(d)) and feedback (s.6A(1)(e)-(f)). Channels must allow reports in writing, orally (phone or other voice messaging) and, on request, by in-person meeting within a reasonable time. Acknowledgement within 7 days and feedback within 3 months. No statutory language requirement beyond ordinary accessibility. Selling point for an operated channel: Ireland is one of the few member states where simply not having a channel is a prosecutable criminal offence.
One channel for a group that operates in more than one member state
A group with entities in Ireland and elsewhere in the EU does not get one law, it gets one per country: different rules on anonymous reports, different authorities, different deadlines and penalties. We set the channel up once and configure it per entity against each national act, from the same verified reference you are reading.