Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for his response, but it is quite extraordinary that he has so rapidly abandoned a commitment in the programme for Government. I suppose it is just one of many commitments that have already been abandoned and of many election promises that have been treated with total abandon as well.

The Taoiseach's Department's strategy statement said the Government would legislate on the issue of Cabinet confidentiality. We saw, in the course of the preparation of the most recent budgets, the Economic Management Council functioning as a de facto Cabinet. We used to have kitchen Cabinets, now we have an Economic Management Council. It would appear that the reason that was adopted was to ensure the minimisation of leaks from Government, which were happening every hour of every day in the run-up to last year's budget.

This year, the Taoiseach managed to keep things quite tight until he went to Cabinet with his set of proposals. Then we found ourselves with a budget that had very few surprises in it, with the exception, perhaps, of the misery the Government was intent on inflicting on carers.

Can the Taoiseach explain what has motivated him to abandon the promise he included in the programme for Government and in his Department's strategy statement? At one time, the Taoiseach promised to issue report cards for each of his Ministers. Has he been checking their performances with regard to maintaining confidentiality or leaking on an ongoing basis?

I assume the Taoiseach himself is firmly committed to Cabinet confidentiality. What is he doing, on an ongoing basis, to address the regular leaks from Cabinet and what action can the public expect him to take in a situation where he can identify a member of Cabinet who has been responsible for a significant leak? In government in the past, the Taoiseach's party had to take the extraordinary step of removing a junior Minister who leaked the entire budget in one go. Maybe his only mistake was to give it all out at once. In recent times we have been getting it in dribs and drabs.

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