Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

The media naturally wanted to know everything. Quite naturally they always want to know everything. I do not blame the media for using every pressure at their command to achieve maximum transparency, but good government requires a deal of privacy and confidentiality, and on occasion, things have to happen behind closed doors. The deliberative process must be protected.

I have held two public offices in this State, that of Attorney General and that of Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. In one of those offices, the Freedom of Information Act did not apply, except to the general management of the office. In the other it did, in an uncontrolled way prior to the amendment of the law. I have no doubt that one of the consequences of the Freedom of Information Act is that genuinely held opinions and advice were not committed to paper in the latter office where they were in the former office. When all the dust settles and the historians look at files, they will find nothing of the deliberative process in many of the offices which were subjected to the glaring and withering blast of Freedom of Information whereas they will find nuggets as to what was really happening in those areas of Government which were clear of that process.