Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I welcome the decision by the Taoiseach to permit a debate on these matters, as requested by the Opposition. It is not just a concession to the Opposition; it is a concession to the public demand to have these issues ventilated in the House. Does the Taoiseach agree that for a serving Cabinet Minister to open a bogus non-resident account in Castlebar is a disgraceful disservice to his office? Does he agree that the fact that the serving Cabinet Minister gave a London address while still in the Cabinet and falsely signed a revenue form is a disgraceful betrayal of the confidence placed in him by the public?

If the Taoiseach agrees with me on that, will he inform the House when he first knew about these events? I remind him of his statement that what matters is how a leader responds when he comes into possession of certain knowledge. How did the Taoiseach respond? Did he take any action to retrieve the £50,000? What action did he take? Why did he go to Castlebar to bear-hug Flynn senior and confer his sanction on the candidacy of Deputy Cooper-Flynn, given what we knew at that time and that a High Court action had been taken?

If the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform knew about these events more than a year ago, when did he inform the Taoiseach of them? Does the Taoiseach agree with that Minister that these are matters of the utmost gravity? What does he believe that Minister means when he says they are matters of the utmost gravity? Does he mean collusion in tax evasion or something else? I remind the Taoiseach that, in 1989, £50,000 would have bought two houses in the constituency represented at the time by the Tánaiste, Deputy Harney, and myself.

Will the Taoiseach state whether he was aware that officials in the Department of the Environment and Local Government recommended a Garda investigation at that time and that it was blocked by their political master?

See this speech in context