Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Every Deputy is entitled to seek to advance whatever issue or agenda he or she has, and Government is entitled to agree or disagree to pursue that. We are, however, dealing with something more than just in the nature of a political agreement. The Taoiseach has defended keeping this agreement secret on the grounds that it constituted a political understanding between him and Deputy Finian McGrath, and other Independent Deputies. It is clear from what he has said that these agreements relate to national and international issues and matters to public expenditure. While he is perfectly entitled to reach whatever agreement he wishes with Deputies on those matters, we are entitled to ask what is in the agreements. This is not just a matter of politics but of public expenditure, the use of the people's money and what the Taoiseach describes as priorities. If, for example, one Deputy gets some kind of favoured treatment for his or her constituency other Members are entitled to know what that is. I submit that the Taoiseach is obliged to put on record what he has agreed with the Independent Deputies. The documents relating to those agreements should be on the public record.

This is not a matter of political interplay but of the management of the people's money. Is there anything that the Taoiseach has agreed with Deputy Finian McGrath or other Independent Deputies not already documented in the programme for Government or in the national development plan? We are entitled to know that. Will the Taoiseach tell us what it is? He is dancing around in secrecy but there is no great secrecy about these things, we should know what they are.

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