Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

The fallacy of the argument being made is that it assumes that anything done, said or written by officials, special advisers, spin doctors or whatever is covered by this exemption whereas in fact the clause is very tightly drawn. It states: "(b) a committee of officials . appointed by the Government for the purpose of assisting the Government in relation to a particular matter that has been submitted to the Government for their consideration". Many issues come before Government that involve complexities on which the Government finds it necessary to have further study and deliberation. It may be a sub-committee attended by both Ministers and officials. It may be delegated to senior officials like the Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach and one or two other officials and occasionally, although not very often, it can include special advisers, more so when the rainbow Government was in office and the Department of the Tánaiste was mainly made up of such people.