Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

Does the Taoiseach's reply indicate that he will not be bringing forward legislation on Cabinet confidentiality? There has been an epidemic of leaking of what is supposedly on the Cabinet's agenda, in terms of who is doing what. There was a good deal of it this morning, with participants in the Economic Management Council telling journalists how important their proposals are. We even had a leak in regard to the potential resignation of a member of Cabinet.

The problem is that while Ministers and advisers can and are willing to leak anonymously, there is no way for anybody here to ask any questions about it. Even in regard to freedom of information, the Taoiseach has taken a fairly aggressive approach of trying to hide the factual material behind many of his public claims. For example, we were denied freedom of information access to the formula put to the Taoiseach by President Van Rompuy at the European Council meeting last February. We sought that information from both the Office of the Information Commissioner in this State and its European Union counterpart. The latter indicated that the Government should provide that information but it has refused to do.

Has the Taoiseach issued instructions to his Ministers and advisers to respect Cabinet confidentiality and, if not, does he intend to do so? It is not good enough that we are being told in this House that we cannot, with due respect to the constitutional provisions in regard to Cabinet confidentiality, ask questions about particular Cabinet sub-committees, yet we hear every day, in the public domain, about what is going on at Cabinet. This information is coming from anonymous sources, either Ministers or advisers. It undermines Parliament and shows a fundamental disrespect for Parliament.

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