Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

I was somewhat surprised at the Government's amendment to the Labour Party motion. The amendment focuses very much on the economy. I took the spirit of the Labour motion to be about how we behave ourselves in public office or in public service and how the people view public service and public office. The Government amendment went way off the point on a tangent, which might have been deliberate to stop us talking about what is basically corruption in public life and public service. There has been a systemic acceptance of corruption in recent years. We pay lip service to ethics in public office. However, the history of what has been revealed in the tribunals shows an unbelievable acceptance of corruption. One could almost say it should be legislated for because it is so endemic.

For instance, the last Taoiseach turned up with loads of cash and money in bank accounts, and nobody quite knew if some of it was sterling or dollars. There was a convoluted story about all of it. He came out with an explanation of having won it on the horses. There was an acceptance of that. Would that be accepted in any other civilised country? A premier who claimed to have won his money on the horses would more or less be forced to resign by his party colleagues. It was laughed off and joked about. It goes further than that because there was moral indignation about corruption from the Green Party when it was in Opposition. When it got its opportunity to go into power, the moral indignation disappeared and it was quite happy to go into power with the very same Taoiseach with whom it had so many problems before it went into power. It seems that when it comes to achieving power, corruption falls way down in the levels of priority.

We have the same hypocrisy day in and day out when Ministers are caught out. We have never seen a Minister resign for incompetence or poor behaviour, which reinforces the acceptance of lack of ethics and of corruption in our society. If those at the top do not feel the need to take responsibility, nobody feels the need to take responsibility, which is what is happening at the moment. Some people said the former Minister of State, Deputy McGuinness, was a man of principle when he stood up and spoke of the incompetence of the Tánaiste and the way she carries out her duties as a Minister was viewed across the world. However, he only said this after he was fired. He was there long enough to realise there was a problem but he was not going to come out and say the country was going down the tubes faster than it should be because of the incompetence of his bosses. He was quite happy to keep his mouth shut as long as he was holding on to a position of power.

Part of the problem in the country is that we accept very low standards across the board. It appears to be accepted as part of our culture. We get morally indignant about corruption in Irish society. If people are so concerned about corruption they should consider people like Charles Haughey, Ray Burke, Liam Lawlor and Deputy Bertie Ahern, and ask themselves why they have consistently voted the same people back into power in successive general elections. That means as a society we have no problems with corruption whatsoever. The problem with poor principles at the top of Irish politics, especially within the Fianna Fáil Party, is that they contribute to the mess in which we find ourselves. Those same poor standards and lackadaisical ideas about principles and ethics went right through to the banks. The excuses made by directors of the boards of Anglo Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland and Irish Life & Permanent to their shareholders in recent weeks make one realise they were all just chasing each other around to make the last buck and fastest buck. Principle and everything else were just thrown to one side. We have done nothing to get rid of that.

One of the greatest concerns I have about coming years is over a party like Libertas and where it could end up. That party has been extremely coy about its financing and its sources of funding in many of its campaigns. It is extremely adept at manipulating the media and public opinion. We have been brought into a crisis, with the concept, no doubt encouraged by the Government Members present, that somehow we are all the same. I am sure the Minister of State, as a keen historian, will accept this was the sort of scenario we saw in Germany in the 1930s where someone was able to take power on the back of very spurious concerns.

If we are really serious about doing something about this, there is a need particularly for Members from the Government parties to show principles. They need to understand the concepts of whistle blowing and freedom of information. Freedom of information is about protecting our democracy. It was 60 years ago this year that John A. Costello declared Ireland a Republic. While we have much to be proud of, we equally have much of which we should not be so proud. Much of that has arisen from the dominance of one political party. I would like to hear the response of the Minister of State. We should stay away from the economic arguments for the moment and stick to the principles of ourselves as public representatives in public service. We should put to one side corruption and the abuse of public office in order to enrich ourselves or a small group of people. That corruption has totally discredited the political system here in recent years.