Raiseaconcern.com

Raiseaconcern commenced operations in 2013. We are an Irish organisation exclusively dedicated to advising on and operating whistleblowing schemes for employers.  We also conduct independent investigations of workplace wrongdoing and engage in dispute resolution.

The Protected Disclosures Act 2014 necessitates that Boards and Senior Management of Employers put in place processes to encourage and protect whistleblowers. Public Services Bodies are obliged to do so.  Raiseaconcern was formed to help make whistleblowing work, at a practical level, for all concerned.

At Raiseaconcern we really believe that whistleblowing – or raising concerns as we prefer to call it – can play a major role in averting, detecting and dealing with wrongdoing and impropriety. This is good for employers and government, for employees and the public.

Wrongdoing and impropriety takes place, to some degree, in all walks of life. It can be in employment or in public service. It can cover financial or reputational loss, risk to life and limb, damage to the environment or discrimination – the list, in fact, is endless. We give an extensive list of examples here.

Raiseaconcern has observed the operation of ‘self administered’ traditional whistleblowing schemes in Ireland and abroad. Our view is that their effectiveness has been limited because, no matter what protections are offered, by policy or even by law, people are still afraid to speak up. They will not take the risk that management, fellow employees, friends or neighbours will find out that it was they who did so. They do not want to be ‘labelled’. Like it or not, there is a stigma attached to whistleblowing. So, despite moral anguish, people often - for very understandable reasons of peace and self preservation - choose to stay silent. And they privately hope that someone else will have the courage to raise the matter.

Having studied this behaviour, we at Raiseaconcern decided to do something different. We decided to offer the service of separating the concerned person from the problem. In addition to providing advisory services on setting up and operating whistleblowing schemes, Raiseaconcern intermediates between employers and concerned employees, while not disclosing the identity of the employee to the employer. This gives employees the best of both worlds - the protections of effective anonymity with the benefits and legal protections of disclosure. And it gives employers and public bodies a wealth of information to address wrongdoing.

Raiseaconcern is a trusted, professional third party intermediator.

We have developed a secure user friendly web portal to assist in the process of raising concerns securely.

We also have the experience and expertise to advise.

We are passionate about what we do, because we believe it matters and is in the public interest.

In 2015, as part of a public procurement competition, Raiseaconcern was appointed by the Department of Public Expenditure & Reform to a Framework for the Provision of External Workplace Investigation Services to the Irish Public Service.  This principally operates in the area of 'Dignity at Work' (bullying, harassment and secual harassment). Since then, we have successfully tendered to undertake in excess of 100 invstigations across numerous sectors of the Irish Public Service.  In 2019, we were appointed cascade leader in the Framework for the provision of this service.

In 2017, as part of a public procurement competition, Raiseaconcern was appointed by the Department of Public Expenditure & Reform as the single outsourced service provider for the role of 'Confidential Recipient' of employee disclosures of public service organisations who chose to outsource this service.  We also act as independent 'Evaluator' of such disclosures to public bodies and to prescribed persons.