Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I find this distressing. The Taoiseach said "the public is entitled to have an absolute guarantee of the financial probity and integrity of their elected representatives, officials and, above all, Ministers". The Taoiseach, as a Minister, was in receipt of serious cash donations. He moved up to €300,000, in today's value, in four major lodgments which he has been unable to explain. The problem I have with the Taoiseach is that he does not apply the standards to himself that he applies to others. If it was wrong for Mr. Charles Haughey to receive money it was also wrong for the Taoiseach. No Minister in the current Government has had the courage to say that. The message this sends about our country and the way we do business does down every Member of the House. Every time politicians speak they are branded as being all the same. They are not all the same. Why does the Taoiseach not apply the same standards to himself as he did to Mr. Charles Haughey?

The Green Party, who are the Taoiseach's colleagues in Government and are not here today, hold the view that taking money was wrong.

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