Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

The Taoiseach stated that five files were retained this year and that most of them were about Northern Ireland. Can he say what was the subject matter of the other files?

I refer to the reply given by the Taoiseach when this question was asked previously. Today's reply is word for word but with the number of files changed. One wonders about questions to the Taoiseach. Since the advent of the word processor, the reply comes back word for word the same. There used to be a time when the intelligent civil servant would rewrite the reply in a different style or come at it from a different angle but now the same chunk of text is taken from the word processor with five substituted for nine. I suggest it would be a great help in the context of the consideration of reform of the Dáil if some of the minor points about questions to the Taoiseach could be examined.

Every year the Taoiseach answers questions on this subject and he states that X number of files have been retained under section 8(4)(b) and another number of other files retained under section 8(4)(a), for varying reasons. Are those files which are held over ever revisited? I presume some of them are held over because some person is still alive or whatever. I am not suggesting there should be somebody in the Taoiseach's office monitoring the obituary notices, although I bet there is such a person.

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