“Designed to Protect Institutions” exposes how Ireland’s Protected Disclosures framework has shifted away from protecting whistleblowers and towards shielding institutions, managing reputational risk, and suppressing truth.
Drawing on extensive research by Dr Cora M. Stack (2025), this video explores the systemic patterns undermining whistleblower protection across Ireland’s public sector — including policing, healthcare, universities, local authorities, and regulatory agencies.
The video explains:
How burden reversal turns the whistleblower into the problem
How legislative amendments diluted protections
How institutional shielding, cronyism, and conflicted outsourcing operate
Why administrative delay and narrative manipulation retraumatise truth-tellers
How judicial culture reinforces systemic power imbalance
And why Ireland needs a trauma-informed, independent whistleblowing authority to restore accountability and public trust
This is not a story of accidental failure.
It is a story of structural design — and a blueprint for meaningful change.