Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

As I have stated to the Deputy, in liaising, public servants obviously will pass on whatever information or views are expressed at interface with Ministers and Departments in the normal way. Ministers are the people who make the ultimate decisions in respect of expenditure. That is the normal provision and there is no need to involve public servants in that process, apart from doing their job in the normal course of events. As I noted, the agreement relates to those Deputies who support the Government and it has been open to Independent Deputies to so do. Deputy Kenny is aware that Deputy Finian McGrath no longer seeks to support the Government on the basis of that agreement, which is fair enough. That is the political reality with which we must deal. However, there has been no change in respect of the Deputies who had prior agreements with us.

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