Jim Higgins (Fine Gael)

What would be wrong with having these revealed? Is it not the most natural thing in the world that in any organisation, Government or otherwise, individuals will hold opinions that differ, often widely? Is it not in the public interest to enable people to see the different perspectives from which individual members of Cabinet come and to have such differences ultimately resolved in a process known as collective Cabinet responsibility?

I listened to the argument made in the Dáil by the Taoiseach last week and his assertion that the five year rule was impractical and dangerous since it would lead to the release of the Belfast Agreement negotiating papers. Nothing could be further from the truth. Has the Taoiseach been wrongly briefed by civil servants or does he not realise the extent of the current legislation, which makes it clear that the 1997 Act contains a specific exclusion in relation to the Good Friday Agreement and the negotiations leading up to it? This is simply a spin and nothing more.