How disclosures led to years-long battle for his job
2020
Shane Corr learns the Department of Health is compiling secret dossiers containing private and sensitive information to use against families of autistic children seeking their rights in court. He discloses his concerns internally.
2021
Mr Corr makes a Section 10 disclosure to RTÉ after the department refuses to release the outcome of an external inquiry into his disclosure.
March 25, 2021
Department of Health secretarygeneral Robert Watt calls RTÉ director general Dee Forbes to claim, inaccurately, that Mr Corr has breached the Official Secrets Act. Prime Time proceeds to air Mr Corr’s disclosure and interviews him. No action is taken against Mr Corr.
January 27, 2022
Mr Corr records an online Department of Health meeting and discloses financial concerns raised to the Public Accounts Committee. The public spending watchdog, amid legal concerns about secret recordings, strikes the material from the Dáil record.
February 14, 2022
Mr Corr discloses the recording to the Business Post. The newspaper publishes, despite pressure from Mr Watt, who suggests, inaccurately, that the tape may have been doctored. Startling financial concerns in the health service are publicised.
May 2022
Mr Corr is suspended on full pay pending a HR investigation into his actions. He insists he has followed proper whistleblowing procedures.
September 2022
The HR investigation recommends Mr Corr be dismissed. However, the department makes no immediate move to do so.
November 2022
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly says that Mr Corr’s disclosures ‘were in the public interest’.
January 29, 2023
The Irish Mail on Sunday begins publishing further disclosures from Mr Corr. The first of these reveals that successive taoisigh and health ministers – including members of the current Cabinet – agreed a secret plan to hide the true €12bn scale of the State’s liability for illegal nursing-home charges, in order to prevent massive payouts.
January 30, 2023
The next day, the Department of Health sends a registered letter to Mr Corr, informing him that he is facing disciplinary proceedings and dismissal.
February 7, 2023
Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe praises Mr Corr for providing ‘a very valuable public service’ with his disclosures to the media.
July 2023
After investigating Mr Corr’s disclosure to RTÉ, the Data Protection Commissioner fines the Department of Health and bans it from collecting excessive private information about families who are in the process of taking legal actions against the State.
January 2024
The Civil Service Appeals Board holds a confidential hearing at which the department argues that Mr Corr should be fired. The Standards in Public Office Commission launches a preliminary inquiry into Mr Watt’s interventions with both RTÉ and the
Business Post.
February 2024
The board recommends Mr Corr not be sacked – but docks his pay and demotes him. The board rejects the department’s arguments that Mr Corr’s disclosure was invalid.