Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

In many cases, votes taken at committees of the European Parliament are overturned in plenary session. We will have to await the formal report from the committee to the European Parliament, but in the meantime I ask Deputy Ross to respect the fact that our civil servants operate independently of the Government. Under our system, civil servants are not permitted to speak publicly in their own defence or about matters on which they give advice to the Government. This is an important point to make. If Deputies want to change this to a system under which Secretaries General would be allowed to make public statements on the advice they give to the Government or become part of the political process, let us have that debate. It is a matter for the House to decide and if the Deputy wants to introduce a Private Members' Bill to change the current system, he should do so and we will debate it. Until we introduce such a change, however, I ask him to have some respect for the people we appoint to independently advise whatever Government happens to be in office.

See this speech in context