I sat at the Cabinet table as Government Chief Whip for the better part of two and a half years. A system of was in vogue at the time that came in for a lot of criticism – the system of programme managers. When Fianna Fáil and the Labour Party went into government back in the early 1990s, I was one of the strongest critics of the system. However, having seen it operate at close quarters, I can now say that it was very useful. It enabled Ministers to have an outside, objective view, facilitated decisions on a one-to-one basis between programme managers and cut down on the kind of Cabinet meetings to which Senator Mansergh referred: the long, deliberative meetings at which everything was thrashed out at the table. I can say without divulging anything that I never saw, within the Cabinet of 1994 to 1997, a division on any item or memorandum before it.