John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

When I became a Member almost nine years ago the revelations regarding the former Minister, Ray Burke, surfaced. It is important to cast our minds back to that time. I have the distinction of being the first Deputy to call for the resignation of the former Minister, Ray Burke. At the time a commentator said to me that it was a low blow. It was not, it was the truth. I remember a Fianna Fail backbencher, a fairly decent bloke, standing up and asking me if I was trying to tell him that if somebody put £30,000 on a table in front of me that I would not take it. I said I would not. He rolled his eyes up to heaven and walked off. That says something about the culture of the time. It says that the person who does not take money is the oddball and that it would be human to take the money.

My colleague, Deputy Cuffe, said we should draw a line in the sand. I remember the former Minister, Ray Burke, standing in front of the gates of this House telling us he had drawn a line in the sand. I also recall the Tánaiste, Deputy Harney, saying she had full confidence in Ray Burke. Does the Tánaiste have confidence now in all her Fianna Fáil colleagues? I suspect the reason she is not saying anything is that she too has been part of that culture. I also believe the Taoiseach is not taking action because he hopes that tribunal fatigue has set in and that everyone is tarred with the same brush. "Sure they are all at it" is the refrain, but we are not all at it. There are people who do not want to take bribes or, as they now call them, legitimate political donations.

I recall the evening when there was a motion of censure against the former Deputy Liam Lawlor. He was left alone on the backbenches and treated like a pariah. His friends in the Fianna Fáil Party deserted him. I decided to go up and speak to Liam Lawlor. I asked him if he would not make a clean breast of it and tell everything he knew and he replied, "All in my own good time, John". That will not happen now but it is interesting that he had information which he passed on to me. I will not be one of those people who abuse Dáil privilege and reveal this evening what he told me. There are others in this House who abuse Dáil privilege, but I am not one of them.

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