5.—(1) Where a person (“the complainant”)—

(a) in good faith makes a complaint under this Act or the Principal Act to the Commission, a Committee or a Clerk, and

(b) reasonably believes that the complaint has been made to the appropriate person and is one that falls to be investigated under the Principal Act,

no cause of action shall lie against the person, and no disciplinary action shall be taken against him or her, in respect of, or of any matter arising from—

(i) the complaint,

(ii) the furnishing of information to the Commission, a Committee, a Clerk or an inquiry officer in relation to the complaint,

(iii) the performance by the Commission, a Committee, a Clerk or an inquiry officer of a function of it or of his or hers under this Act or the Principal Act in relation to the complaint.

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to a complainant who makes a complaint referred to in that subsection knowing it to be false, misleading, frivolous or vexatious or who furnishes information to the Commission, a Committee, a Clerk or an inquiry officer that he or she knows to be false or misleading.

F3[(2A) Subsection (1) does not apply to the making of a complaint, or the furnishing of information, that is a protected disclosure within the meaning of the Protected Disclosures Act 2014.]

(3) Where an employer dismisses an employee to whom the Unfair Dismissals Act, 1977, applies and the dismissal constitutes disciplinary action taken in contravention of subsection (1) in relation to the employee, the dismissal is a dismissal deemed for the purposes of that Act, by virtue of section 6(2)(f) thereof, to be an unfair dismissal.

(4) A person who takes disciplinary action in contravention of subsection (1) in relation to another person shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding £1,500,

(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding £50,000.

(5) (a) In this section “disciplinary action” means an act—

(i) that is done in relation to a complainant, whether as respects the employment of the complainant or otherwise, and

(ii) that is wholly or mainly intended as punishment or retaliation for the complaint concerned, a matter referred to in subsection (1) or an action referred to in paragraph (ii) or (iii) of that subsection.

(b) Where an act referred to in paragraph (a) is done by a person acting at the instigation, or on behalf, of the person the subject of a complaint referred to in subsection (1), both of those persons shall be deemed, for the purposes of subsection (4), to have taken disciplinary action in contravention of subsection (1) in relation to the complainant.

(c) In paragraph (a) the reference to the doing of an act includes a reference to the making of an omission.