12. (1) A person shall not disclose confidential information obtained by him or her while performing functions as a director or a member of the staff of, or an adviser or consultant to, the network company, or a member of the staff of such adviser or consultant, unless he or she is duly authorised by the network company to so do.

F9[(2) Subsection (1) shall not operate to prohibit the disclosure of confidential information by a person referred to in that subsection where—

(a) the board of directors of the network company authorises the disclosure,

(b) the disclosure is made to the board of directors of the network company, the chief executive officer or a member of the staff of the network company,

(c) the disclosure is made in the performance of functions of the network company,

(d) the disclosure is made by or on behalf of the network company to the Minister, the majority-shareholding Minister, the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform or the Minister for Finance,

(e) the disclosure is made in compliance with a requirement of this Act or the Gas Act 1976 or is otherwise required by law,

(f) the disclosure is made by a person in the circumstances referred to in section 35(2) of the Ethics in Public Office Act 1995,

(g) the disclosure is a protected disclosure (within the meaning of the Protected Disclosures Act 2014), or

(h) the disclosure is made to a member of the Garda Síochána and, in the opinion of the person making the disclosure, the information may relate to the commission of an offence (whether an offence under this Act or not).]

(3) In this section “confidential information” includes—

(a) information that is expressed by the network company to be confidential either as regards particular information or as regards information of a particular class or description, and

(b) proposals of a commercial nature or tenders submitted to the network company by contractors, consultants or any other person.

F10[(4) A person who contravenes subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a class D fine.]