Transparency International, the anti-corruption campaign group, plans for the first time to set up whistleblower legal hotlines in Dublin and Belfast as part of a new "dual-track" approach to tackle perceived wrongdoing in Irish companies and public organisations.

The TI Ireland chief executive John Devitt said the hotlines would mark a new departure for the group that continues to lobby legislators around the world for changes in the law to provide legal protection to so-called whistleblowers and persuade them to come forward.

The approach was a "twin-track" to persuade the Oireachtas to approve legislation to protect whistleblowers for the first time, Devitt said.

At a public meeting in Dublin city centre tomorrow, TI Ireland has invited former AIB auditor Eugene McErlean, Bernadette Sullivan, a former nurse at Drogheda's Lady of Lourdes Hospital and former Irish Army officer Tom Clonan to speak in support of its campaign to give legislative protection to so-called whistleblowers who come forward to speak about questionable practises in their organisations.

Ireland was now one of the few countries that did not have legislation to protect whistleblowers and guarantee their livelihood after they came forward with alleged wrongdoing, Devitt said.

He said the whistleblower hotlines -- part-funded by the European Commission -- would likely be staffed by volunteer lawyers, and would be run in similar ways to the network of free legal advice centres managed by the legal organisation Flac.