Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I am obviously very grateful for the opportunity to support our Taoiseach, the president of Fianna Fáil and the most popular politician on this island.

At the outset, the tribunal has not accused the Taoiseach of not co-operating with it. The tribunal has not accused the Taoiseach of delaying its work. In fact, Judge Mahon no later than last Monday, 24 September, said there was no allegation of non-compliance. He said this many times, indeed he said it on 20 September as well. In almost nine years of investigations there is no evidence of the Taoiseach receiving any money from Mr. O'Callaghan. There is no evidence of him doing any favours for Mr. O'Callaghan. There is no smoking gun and not a scintilla of evidence was adduced.

The motion this evening is not about the tribunal and it is not about the Taoiseach. It is more about the leaders of Fine Gael and the Labour Party vying for Leader of the Opposition. A new Labour Party leader who believes he is Dick Spring is calling for the Taoiseach to resign. It is somewhat like Deputy Ruairí Quinn, once again, looking for a head.

The Fine Gael leader, scared of being overshadowed, is backed into calling for a motion of no confidence. Fine Gael Members talked themselves into putting down this motion of no confidence. It is yet another gesture of politics from the parties opposite, another attempt by the Fine Gael leadership to divert attention from the party's failure to recoup the losses suffered in 2002. Fine Gael has not been elected to office since 1982 and is not liable to be in the foreseeable future. It is another grey attempt by the Labour Party leadership to approach relevance. This is a Labour Party now totally bereft of working class support.

This evening they have lined up against the most popular Taoiseach in the history of the State, the man who picked up the pieces of a shattered peace process to build the Good Friday Agreement, who led his party to three successive victories in general elections, who has the overwhelming support of his own party and that of the Irish people, as was shown most recently in the general election.

The tribunal will ultimately have to make a simple call, that is, to believe the testimony of either the Taoiseach or Mr. Gilmartin. It will have to decide on the veracity of Mr. Gilmartin's allegation, based on mere hearsay, that the Taoiseach took money from Owen O'Callaghan. This matter is all about an allegation based on hearsay, in respect of which not one whit of evidence has been produced.

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