WE may, officially anyway, he on the verge of a new era of openness and transparency with Eithne Fitzgerald's Freedom of Information Bill, but old habits die hard.
A colleague received an unsealed envelope masked "Personal & Confidential" with the letters AHCS, standing for the Association of High Civil Servants, on the top. Anticipating some wonderful scoop, he reached inside it contained a Christmas card. It will be remembered that AHCS members were at the eye of the storm in the Department of Justice during the Judge Lynch/missing letter controversy.