As a piece of fudge, it was a classic. It had all the useful attributes, especially the flexibility to allow it to be applied to almost any imaginable scenario. Perhaps Government Ministers learn these phrases off, practising in front of mirrors to sound sincere.
Try to guess the subject matter of the following gem from Finance Minister Brian Cowen: "there are a number of legislative issues coming through that department, as you know, on a whole range of fronts which mean people require their immediate attention.
"So it's not a question of being complacent about it. It's a question obviously of expediting whatever work is being undertaken at the moment, a number of conventions having to be transposed."
'It's not a priority' would be the closest rough translation - pretty shocking when you consider that he was talking about measures to combat the vile enslavement of women, trafficked into this country, effectively kidnapped, raped by men who pay their pimps for sex, beaten and imprisoned when they try to escape.
This sex trade is becoming more lucrative than drugs. A drug, once consumed, is gone; these women can be used over and over again.
Ireland, uniquely in the EU, has no law specifically designed to outlaw the trafficking of women for sex. Under European law, we were supposed to have enacted such provisions by 2004. When asked on Questions And Answers last Monday why Ireland is so far behind the EU deadline, Brian Cowen said he did not know.
The following night, Fianna Fáil TD SeáArdagh was asked the same question on Prime Time. He also said he did not know.
Nowhere in sight was the Government Minister responsible, Michael McDowell. He declined to be interviewed by Prime Time for their exposé on trafficking. Poor Seán Ardagh was expected to carry the can for the Minister's inaction. Trying to create an impression that this appalling abuse of women was being taken seriously, the best he was able to tell us was that sub-groups of committees were dealing with the issue. Not a Cabinet meeting, no Dáil debate, not even a Dáil committee discussion.
Sub-groups seem to be good enough for the young women like Maria, who told Prime Time how she was trafficked from Romania to be sold for sex in posh Dublin 4 apartments.
Seán Ardagh added that the Taoiseach had said in the Dáil on Tuesday that "we have had convictions in relation to trafficking, in relation to false imprisonment and sexual offences."
Well, good for us! The only problem is that the Taoiseach did not say this.
What he did say was that legislation is already in place to deal with trafficking and that: "I do not think any other legislation is proposed". He then immediately contradicted himself by stating that new legislation was in preparation. Hardly convincing evidence of an organised and urgent strategy to deal with what is clearly a savage and growing problem. The same lethargy from Government was not evident when it came to dealing with illegal immigration or people smuggling into this country. The difference, of course, is that the legislation in this area arises from the perceived self-interest of the State, its desire to protect itself from uncontrolled immigration.
Anti-trafficking laws are designed specifically to protect the victims of this crime. They stem from a commitment to basic human rights.
In Ireland, this is evidently less important than enacting the battery of legislation now available to deport those people living and working here illegally.
It is always difficult to analyse why a particular issue of injustice or abuse fails to capture the public imagination and consequently force political action. In the case of the trafficking of women for sex, there has been no great public outcry since the exposures of the Prime Time programme.
Perhaps our sense of outrage is dulled by the fact that these women are foreign. Or it could be that they are part of a trade in sex about which we have become morally confused.
It is worth remembering that for every weeping and battered eastern European woman being sold for sex, there are hundreds of men, many of them Irish, who are willing to use them, apparently unconcerned that this constitutes rape. It is these men, together with the individuals who sell the women in the first place, who should be the targets of law enforcement efforts in the area.
All we have at present is Maria's experience. She was eventually rescued during a Garda raid on her pimp's apartment.
However, despite telling her harrowing story, she was arrested and sent straight to Mountjoy for not having the proper papers.
Everyone who profited from the brutalisation of Maria, including the many men who raped her, remained untouched.
It was the victim who was imprisoned, tried and expelled from the country. To our shame, this is what now passes for Irish justice.