Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I believe the signs are ominous from the Taoiseach's remarks here. In December 1996, the Taoiseach said:

My party and my front bench are determined that financial scrupulousness will be strictly observed by all our elected members without fear or favour. The public are entitled to have an absolute guarantee of the financial probity and integrity of their elected representatives, their officials and above all of ministers. They need to know they are under financial obligations to nobody other than public lending institutions, except to the extent that they are publicly declared . . . We must draw a line under bad habits that may have grown up over the past 30 years and return to the ethos and public spirit that prevailed under the founders of this State, Eamon de Valera and WT Cosgrave.

Does the Taoiseach's comment this morning mean that the Minister of State, Deputy Callely, will not be a Minister of State by the end of today's proceedings? As the Taoiseach rightly pointed out, there has been the issue of a civil servant apparently being harassed to attend a political function and then deciding to leave the job. There has been a case of an appointee of the Minister of State, Deputy Callely, being offered a car to stay in office. There have been other indiscretions regarding the Minister of State and his conduct. What are the Taoiseach's standards? Is the Taoiseach prepared to make a decision that ensures the Minister of State, Deputy Callely, no longer holds office tomorrow? Does he not feel a little like Michael Corleone in The Godfather when he said, "Just when I thought I was out they pull me back in again"? On this day of all days that a political missile has been fired from within his own ranks speaks of the standards that have crept into the Government. If the Taoiseach wants to live up to the words he uttered in this House in 1996 my understanding, from what he has said, is that he will speak with the Minister of State, Deputy Callely, this morning and that he will not be a Minister of State at the end of today's proceedings.

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