Why was the Irish Council for Civil Liberties not consulted about the legislation? A raft of interested, legitimate organisations, which have a right to have their views heard, were not consulted. Nobody was consulted. It is hard to expect these interested parties, including ourselves, to be consulted when the Information Commissioner – a former high-ranking civil servant – who is the final arbiter in deciding whether a claim for access to information is legitimate, was not even consulted. There should have been a process of dialogue and consultation. This should have happened within the precincts of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service, but there was no consultation. What we have instead is a dangerous measure which is sinister, anti-information and anti-people in nature. It is a measure designed blatantly and exclusively to protect the internal secret machinations of the Civil Service and its temporary political masters.