Paul Bradford (Renua Ireland) | Oireachtas source

I have listened with interest to the views of Members concerning the revelations last night in the "RTE Investigates" programme. It is literally the talk of the country today and people are surprised, shocked and angry. Where investigations are necessary I am sure they will be conducted and presumably, should prosecutions be necessary, they will follow in due course.

We need to recognise that the spotlight that is being shone on local authorities and their members across the country should, perhaps, be redirected closer to home. The political example must be set from Leinster House, not from council chambers. Many years ago, the former Tánaiste, Mr. Dick Spring spoke about a cancer in the political system. He was speaking about a particular individual at that time and expressed his views about that gentleman. However, there remains a cancer in the political system - the cancer of cronyism. We saw it in this House about 18 months ago when an attempt was made to use the House for political purposes. We see it in the unreformed quango system, those quangos which were supposed to be gotten rid of but which still exist, the appointments to those quangos, or judicial appointments in respect of which people in the Law Library know months in advance who is going to be appointed to what position. We see it in the distribution of grants and funds in various schemes across the country. Let us not pretend. Cronyism is part of our political system and political culture and always has been. We must decide whether we want to continue with that type of broken, dysfunctional politics, or whether we need a new start.

While the problems at local authority level, where they exist, must be examined, we must start much closer to home and the buck stops with us and with the Government. There has been mention of the need for an anti-corruption Bill. I am sure that is somewhere in the ether waiting to be passed, and the sooner the better. Everything about our political system, our appointments system, patronage and favouritism is as bad now as it ever was. That is the real cancer and cronyism. When the small-time county councillors have disappeared off the public airwaves, the substantial matter of cronyism and its cancerous effect on politics will still have to be tackled. That is where we must start, at the top.

We need to put new legislation in place. An anti-corruption Bill would be a step in the right direction but the culture needs to change. The culture of the public needs to change as well. Substantial findings have been made about certain politicians, yet the public decides to re-elect them. It would sometimes make me wonder. We need a very new culture in Irish politics.