The Government and the Minister have made great play out of the so-called "need" for this legislation. The Information Commissioner made a speech to which the Minister for Finance referred in his short contribution to the House. It was made at the freedom of information annual conference in Dublin Castle, held on 10 October 2002, when the Information Commissioner spoke about the radical nature of the legislation and how the public service was forced to adapt to a whole new environment. He stressed that freedom of information has fundamentally and radically altered the nature of the relationship between the public service and the public. In a broader sense, by making Government more transparent and accountable, FOI has significantly affected the environment in which the Government operates. That is what this dictatorial Government wants to roll back.