Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

He was wrong to conceal it for the past 13 years, wrong to condemn hypocritically in this House when he knew he had accepted money, and wrong to declare he had done nothing wrong. Today, he says it is an error and a misjudgment, honest or otherwise. He refuses to face the questions I asked him last week. Is he man enough to state that what he did in accepting this money for personal use was wrong?

I would like the Taoiseach to answer the following questions. Last week, I asked him whether he would admit to his actions being wrong. Last Sunday he wrote: "I have done nothing wrong. I stand over everything I did." That is an application of double standards — preach one thing, do another. The Taoiseach told RTE newscaster Brian Dobson:

[My friends] wanted to raise a function for me. 1,000 a head, 25-30 people. I said no, I wasn't going to do that. That was personal [money]. Anyone does that, it's for politics, so I refused.

Good man. However, the Taoiseach saw nothing wrong with personally accepting €12,000 raised by friends in Manchester, except this time it was from 25 people at €500 a head. Why, by his own standards, was it wrong in Dublin but right in Manchester? The Taoiseach is the accountant. He knows the tax laws. Was it because a personal donation in Dublin would be taxable but one from Manchester would not?

Second, the Taoiseach's taking of €12,000 in Manchester deserves some straight answers. He was speaking to a business organisation about the Irish economy. By any interpretation, it would be unthinkable for a Minister to put money in his or her pocket. If the Secretary General of the Department accepted money at any such function, that person would be sacked by the Taoiseach the following morning, rightly so.

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