Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I also know how brilliantly they do their work but this was not a job for them. The users were not consulted. A users' group was set up to monitor the operation of the legislation but the last time it met was in 1999 or 2000. No one asked it about this legislation. Will the Minister of State tell me the correct title of the group because I would like to table an amendment regarding it on Committee Stage? We also appointed an Information Commissioner. How can one justify amending the primary legislation when the person, the fulcrum of the operation of the legislation, has not been asked for a view? The man concerned has worked at the most senior level of the Civil Service and is now the Ombudsman and the Information Commissioner. Why was he not asked? The reason is simple. Like all politicians, I do not ask a question unless I know what the answer will be. The Information Commissioner would not have given the answer the Government was looking for and so was not asked. The Minister of State knows how these things work. He could not justify what has happened. If he was asked by a constituent the reason the Information Commissioner was not consulted, he would say, "I do not know," because he is an honest man.