Dáil Éireann is the last place any Government Minister would now announce plans on issues of public importance, the Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, claimed, in the ongoing row over the leaking of reports on the health service.
TDs have not yet seen the three reports, which recommend fundamental reform of the health service. Mr Rabbitte told the Dáil that "Ministers actively collude in diminishing the stature of the House and in contriving through an army of publicly paid PR people to make their announcements outside this House".
Accusing the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, of "colluding" in the leaking of reports on health service reform, he said the Dáil had been waiting for a "very long time" to read the reports' conclusions, but "selected journalists are able to study the proposals and comment on them and we are entirely reliant on their assessment". He could see no reason why the reports could not be placed in the Oireachtas library and a copy given to every TD, especially as one of the three documents, the Brennan report, was finished in January.
The Tánaiste said, however, the reports would be published when the Government finalised its discussions on the matter, and what was important was the "action" the Government would take arising from the reports.
An outraged Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, said the Government set out to "strangle" the Freedom of Information Act, but was leaking sections of reports to the media. Objecting to the Order of Business - when the day's Dáil agenda is set - he said it was a "disgrace" that those elected by the public were "not entitled" to read the reports.
"Yet journalists all over the country have freedom and access to sections of these reports, enabling them to comment publicly on them."
