Sir, - I noted with interest your leading article on Monday, January 15th, headed "Reforming the Public Service".
If a reform of the Public Service is to be effective it must take place hand in hand with reform of the Oireachtas. In your article you complimented the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, on his aspiration to make civil servants more autonomous and more directly accountable. However, the Taoiseach's and the Government's record to date in this regard is lamentable.
For instance, the recently published Compellability, Privileges and Immunities of Witnesses Bill 1995, totally flies in the face of the Taoiseach's quoted desire to make civil servants more accountable in that it is proposed that the Taoiseach of the day will have the final say as to whether or not a public servant can give evidence to an Oireachtas committee.
Again, the present Government's performance regarding the Repeat Rule for Parliamentary Questions indicates a lack of willingness to be more open. It will be remembered that the Chairman of the Beef Tribunal made certain remarks regarding parliamentary questions and replies. The Government recently proposed a minimalist amendment to the Repeat Rule on Parliamentary Questions and Fianna Fail made a counter proposal which in effect meant the total abolition of the rule. The Government voted our proposal down. Within days of this rejection it became obvious that even more anomalies manifested themselves as a result of the Government's own amendment. The Government have, at Fianna Fail's exhortations, merely agreed to "a reinterpretalion" of the rule. They have still bluntly refused to abolish the repeat rule.
There is no need to take my word for it. One of The Irish Times's own political correspondents termed this Government, after only a few months in office, to be "the most secretive Government in the history of the State" and it's getting worse! - Yours, etc.,
Fianna Fail Chief Whip,
Dail Eireann,
Baile Atha Cliath 2.