This amending legislation goes against the very principles about which some people have been lecturing in recent years. It will not, in any way, ease the cynicism which exists and, if anything, will add to it. Has the Government not learned anything from the tribunals over the past six or seven years? If it has learned one thing, it should have been that the people are entitled to accountability and openness. Those principles were promised on many occasions by this Administration and others. That is why this Bill is a major retrograde step for Irish politics. It grinds democracy into the ground.