A serving Air Corps whistle-blower is facing dismissal from the Defence Forces next month, due to an “industrial dispute”.
The Irish Examiner can reveal that the man, who made protected disclosures about health and safety management of hazardous chemicals at Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel, has been summoned to appear before a Defence Forces medical board in August.
A brief report, issued prior to the board meeting, has accused the member of “chronic ineffectivity” due to anxiety and a “work-related industrial dispute”.
The Protected Disclosures Act was introduced in 2014 to protect whistle-blowers from being penalised for reporting issues in their workplace.
This newspaper can also reveal that the man previously met with junior defence minister Paul Kehoe in Government Buildings, to discuss his concerns.
The man told Mr Kehoe that an Air Corps official ordered the shredding of health and safety inspection reports dating back to the 1990s. He is the second whistleblower to make such an allegation.
The claim was also made in a written disclosure submitted by a different whistleblower, in April — a statement that further named the official alleged to have ordered the reports’ destruction.
However, Mr Kehoe has ruled out any investigation into the documents’ disappearance, despite previously admitting that he could only offer “speculative” reasons as to why they cannot be found.
Six former Air Corps staff are suing the State, claiming their chronic illnesses are as a result of their exposure to toxic chemicals used in the course of their duties.
Opposition TDs say they have seen copies of the 1990s inspection reports, and the reports are said to show that it was long-known that the conditions at Casement Aerodrome were not up to standard.
This has prompted claims that the Defence Forces’ copies of the documents were deliberately destroyed to cover up knowledge of workers’ exposure to harmful substances.
Read more on the Irish Examiner website
Whoever this is, don’t be one bit afraid of bully boy tactics. Give them respect where it is offered to you. They see themselves in the Orwellian way of some animals being more equal than others. I’m quite sick right now and honestly don’t know if I’ll be alive next week. If one of those walked in here to my hospital with the stuck up, I’m smarter and more important than you views right now I would drop him with a box even as skinny and sick as I am. I still work for another branch of the state and never had that feeling given me by anyone in it regardless of rank.
Something is rotten in the Don.