Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach stated quite bluntly, "I have no plans" to legislate on Cabinet confidentiality. The appropriate piece from the programme for the Government states:

We will radically overhaul the way Irish politics and Government work. The failures of the political system over the past decade were a key contributor to the financial crisis and the system must now learn those lessons urgently. Government is too centralised and unaccountable. We believe that there must also be a real shift in power from the State to the citizen. We will legislate on the issue of Cabinet confidentiality.

In reply to Teachta Martin, the Taoiseach indicated that the real intention was not to remove the Cabinet confidentiality aspect of the Constitution when it is clear from the preceding paragraphs that was the intention. The Government indicated it would overhaul the way politics and the Government would work because of the failures of the past and so forth.

The banking inquiry is under way and there are good bits in it. For example, documents which Ministers relied on come under the compellability umbrella and are not subject to Cabinet confidentiality. We have seen individuals questioned on decisions, which is to be welcomed. Some of the information, particularly around the 2008 meeting during which the crucial decision on the banking guarantee was made, is off limits because of Cabinet confidentiality. The citizens of this State who are saddled with a debt they did not incur are potentially being denied important information. That is one of the reasons the Government had this in the programme for Government.

If this was at the behest of the Labour Party, one might argue it was very naïve. Who knows? It rolled over on all the other commitments it made. The Taoiseach indicated this arose from good intentions, and the road to hell, as the Taoiseach knows, is paved with good intentions. I can see this only as a "Pat Rabbitte promise".

It is not a serious commitment in the programme for Government. Will the Taoiseach explain to the Dáil what exactly is the purpose of commitments in the programme for Government, including an unambiguous commitment to legislate on the issue of Cabinet confidentiality, when he can come to the House some time later and simply say he has no plans to legislate on this matter?

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