Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

If I had in this amendment vested those powers in a political person such as a Minister, I could well appreciate the Labour Party, with some degree of justification, issuing the press statement it did, and stating: "This man wants to be able to root through every file in the country." However, when the amendment tendered divests the Minister of that power and vests it in the Accounting Officer of his Department, there can be no question of there being any reality in the implicit bad faith situation being generated by way of objection to this on the part of the Labour Party.

I am only concerned with one point, namely, that succeeding Ministers or myself should be in a position, when asked a simple question in the House, such as whether gardaí received a report of this or that kind, whether they have a statement of confession from a man who did not commit a crime or whether they have written evidence of corruption, to give the House an answer the Minister knows to be true.

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