Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

As the Green Party prepares for its annual convention in Kilkenny this weekend I wish to speak to a motion regarding the ongoing and damning admissions that senior politicians have received payments over the years which can only have been made to promote certain vested interests at the expense of the common good of the people, their families and communities.

I do not often read the Old Testament but Solomon's words in the Book of Proverbs or Ezekiel in the Jewish faith contain some insight as to what was going on in Dublin County Council in the 1980s and 1990s. Book of Proverbs, Chapter 29, verse 18 reads, "Where there is no vision the people perish but he that keepeth the law, happy is he".

Politicians of all persuasions have to provide a vision but sadly in the chamber of Dublin County Council on O'Connell Street there was no vision at that time and the chequer-board pattern of land rezonings in north-west and south Dublin sowed the seeds of urban sprawl that continues to haunt us today. At the time the Green Party raised its voice about what was going on but that voice was drowned out by the snuffling of corrupt public representatives at the trough in Patrick Conway's pub on Parnell Street, around the corner from the council chamber on O'Connell Street. Some others had voiced concern. Frank McDonald and Mark Brennock from The Irish Times had dissected the dubious rezonings that had occurred. The Irish Planning Institute had publicly questioned what had been going on and the barrister, Michael Smith, and his colleague, Colm Mac Eochaidh had offered a £10,000 reward for information on alleged planning corruption. It is a damning indictment that in the current Government the Taoiseach has failed to condemn or discipline the members of his party sitting in the Oireachtas who have suffered collective amnesia in regard to the payments they received. At a time when members of my party were running election campaigns on a budget of hundreds of pounds Fianna Fáil was accepting thousands upon thousands of pounds and forgetting about it afterwards. They were dangerous times for speaking out and I would like to think we have moved on but many of the county councillors who made questionable rezonings then are still sitting on seats in Dublin City Council. Even Senator Don Lydon who caught our party leader in a headlock in the Dublin County Council——

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