Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

I ask the Tánaiste if it is of any concern to her that last week she said she discussed suspicions of corruption in Dublin County Council in the 1990s with Deputy Kitt and others. I know these were the most torrid days in the history of Dublin County Council because I was there. Speculators and bag men were crashing into each other as they arrived with donations to politicians. The Chief Whip accepts a donation, other Fianna Fáil TDs accept donations but then their memory fails.

I refer the Tánaiste to an earlier period of Progressive Democrats in Government when the unreliable memory of a Government colleague, the late Minister, Brian Lenihan, caused her to have him sacked from Government. By those standards, Deputy Kitt's memory lapse revealed last Monday would have the Tánaiste on Tuesday at the Taoiseach's door with her carving knife, followed close behind by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, with a silver platter to receive the Chief Whip's head. What has changed in the meantime?

I remind the Tánaiste that she is in charge. According to the Progressive Democrats president, Deputy McDowell, it is not the bulky bread which gives the sandwich its taste, it is the Progressive Democrats meat that gives the sandwich its flavour, incidentally reducing the Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil to a soggy lump of batch. In west Dublin many people believe the PDs slipped into the sandwich under a leaf of lettuce and they hope it will be scrubbed better when the next one is being prepared. According to the Minister, Deputy McDowell, the junior party decides the essential direction of Government. Is it that the PDs are getting from this Government all they want such as privatisation of public assets — Aer Lingus is the next casualty — indulgence of the unbridled greed of speculators, a tax bonanza for the obscene rich and the pioneering of the race to the bottom which the Tánaiste pioneered by bringing Turkish big business to Ireland and so giving us the infamous Gama? In the indulgence of that orgy of greed which is the essence of the neo-liberal capitalism that she espouses, donations alleged, memory lapses and all the rest no longer cause her any problems.

For the possible amusement of the Ceann Comhairle, my research has indicated that the sandwich was invented by John Montague, the fourth earl of Sandwich. Apparently he did not like getting his hands sticky by handling the meat directly. He must have had a premonition of the future of Irish politics.

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