Any far-reaching changes to the 1997 Act, which is acknowledged as the key instrument in achieving long overdue and long sought after openness and transparency, should not even have been contemplated without a process involving all the political parties, the media and the National Union of Journalists. If one considers the statistics, journalists have not abused their right of access to information under the 1997 Act and have done the State a considerable service by establishing certain information, which has led to fairly wide-ranging changes. They have also put high profile issues that needed to be exposed into the public domain.