John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)

It is not the function of civil servants to argue the merits of any given Government policy. That has never been the case in the history of the State. It should be remembered that the chief executive in this instance is a public servant and has the role of implementing rather than creating or inspiring Government policy. It would be entirely inappropriate for a chief executive as envisaged here to go before an Oireachtas committee to declaim on Government policy because, if that was to happen, he or she would become a political football whose opinions on the Government would be quoted here, there and everywhere. If we pursued the line proposed by Senator Ryan, we would demean our public servants.