Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

Thar ceann an Chomhaontais Ghlais, fáiltím roimh an deis seo labhairt ar thuairisc Uí Mhuircheartaigh. It is regrettable that we do not have the opportunity for question and answers on this matter because the response of the Taoiseach to the report is characterised by a word, "surprise". He tells us he was surprised to discover that Mr. Haughey had a darker side. He was surprised to find out about the pilfering, equivalent to €41 million, during his career and he said he was surprised if any party had as high standards as Fianna Fáil in the way it operates its leader's allowance, which indicates a see-no-evil, hear-no-evil type of approach. Parties generally have been ahead of the posse in respect of being accountable for the leader's allowance. In my party, I would be happy to have absolute clarity and transparency because it is important to have that in regard to all public funding.

It is interesting to speculate on "what if". As a correspondent in The Irish Times wrote, the Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, regrets that he signed blank cheques for Charles Haughey, but who would be Taoiseach today if he had refused? The RTE programme, "What If", which Diarmuid Ferriter presents on a Sunday morning, has speculated on a number of "what if" scenarios in Irish history. In terms of modern Irish history, the "what if" in this case would be quite interesting. What if the Taoiseach had refused to sign those cheques? I would certainly like to hear what the Taoiseach would have to say about that if he was present.

The Taoiseach gives the impression that all is well and that things have been put in order, but things are not all well. First, we are down €25 million so far on the cost of this report. The country is down another €215 million in regard to the various tribunals so far. That is money that could have been better spent — €39 million would have given us an extra 1,000 teachers for our classrooms, thus reducing the pupil-teacher ratio, as promised by the Government, while €97 million would have provided medical cards for children under six years of age. We would have been able to get the extra gardaí who might have prevented much of the hyperbole from the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, which adds to the heartache of crime in society. Given that we are down that money, an apology is due on that score for a start.

Second, there is the continuing temptation put in the way of unscrupulous and seemingly wealthy developers who can exploit a dysfunctional property market to the detriment of everyone else. Those rules have not changed, notwithstanding the indication that they resulted in corruption previously. I have no reason to believe that has all gone away. There is the poverty that results from that for people who are locked into high mortgages, the working-poor as they tend to be called nowadays. There is child poverty caused by great poverty, illness caused by great poverty and also illness caused by great wealth, which is ironic in this country but also in the rest of the western world. Essentially, we have a dysfunctional property market which is at the root of much of that corruption.

The long-standing Justice Kenny report on property and building land of 1973 has been studiously ignored by successive Governments. All the talk about implementing its recommendations has been followed by zilch action. Therein lies another indication of things not being well and in need of being addressed on foot of this report.

The corporate donations scenario has huge billboards appearing like mushrooms all around the country, payment for which comes with the acceptance that those with a lot of money can essentially influence the political system by giving donations. That is what is happening.

Much of the genesis of the tribunals, certainly the beef tribunal, came from not giving factual replies in the House. A change in Standing Orders is needed to force replies to be given. Last week, I referred to an article in The Sunday Tribune and the Taoiseach accused me of writing it. I have a letter here from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government which I quoted to the Taoiseach and he accused me — as reported in The Irish Times today — of showing him a bogus letter. There is a need for accountability in the House and if we are not to have that, we are destined for further tribunals, needless expenditure, needless waste and a continuing bad name for politics.

The Irish branch of Transparency International, on foot of the Moriarty tribunal, has called for additional powers for the Standards in Public Office Commission and full disclosure of financial accounts by political parties, covering not just the three weeks coming up to expenditure on an election, but between one election day and the next — total transparency. They acknowledge the benefit of the tribunal in exposing the wrongdoing which facilitated widespread tax evasion, the illegal sale of passports, the theft of charitable and party political funds and the recouping of substantial sums in tax revenue. Further still, they call for anti-corruption measures. The fact that we are not getting that from these statements is the reason we need to return to this report and have questions and answers which, hopefully, would lead to some accountability.

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