Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

——to protect their little spaces on their fine leather seats. When it suits the Green Party it puts on the veil of collective responsibility as a shield. Nowhere is this more true than the European reform treaty where the Green Party Ministers are happy to be included in the yes camp on the basis that a collective Cabinet decision has been made to endorse the treaty. However, when the same Ministers go out and publicly and repeatedly attack a tribunal of inquiry set up by this House, accusing it of "acting outside its remit", we get only silence from the Green Party. Truth, standards and integrity no longer exist in this green tunnel.

Last September when this House debated a motion of no confidence in the Taoiseach, I set out the reasons he should step down. I asked if the Taoiseach was correct to take large sums of money for personal use. My view was that he was wrong. I asked if the Taoiseach fully and freely co-operated with the Mahon tribunal. My view was that he did not. I asked if the Taoiseach told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, to the people, the Dáil and the tribunal. My view is that he has not.

In the debate the Taoiseach said "The House established the tribunal and Members should let it get on with its work." Does the Taoiseach consider a Minister accusing the tribunal of "bias", "astounding questions", "acting outside its remit" and being "unfair" is allowing the tribunal to get on with its work? Far from censoring such Ministers about their comments, I have no doubt that the Taoiseach actively encouraged those comments.

For months we have seen the Taoiseach portray himself time and again as a victim. Before he appeared at the Mahon tribunal, he assured us all that he could not wait to go before the judges and give a full and categorical explanation for his finances. Now after six days of hearings, he is complaining that he has been victimised in some way and treated differently from other witnesses.

The Taoiseach seems to have forgotten that, as with Mr. Ray Burke, the late Mr. Liam Lawlor, Mr. George Redmond and Mr. Frank Dunlop, the tribunal is merely following the money trail, a tried, tested and successful method for tribunals of inquiry. The Taoiseach stated in the Dáil in September 1997 "following the money trail is the most efficient and effective way to progress this type of inquiry". Perhaps the reason for this extraordinary attack by Fianna Fáil on the tribunal is that the tribunal is progressing its inquiry in a way which is not to the liking of the Fianna Fáil Ministers surrounding this Taoiseach.

One hundred and fifty people have been investigated or interviewed in the Quarryvale module of the tribunal and overall approximately 600 people have been interviewed. In only one case has there been an outcry from Fianna Fáil Ministers about the tribunal acting outside its remit or acting illegally or unfairly.

This afternoon in reply to a question from Deputy Gilmore, we heard the Taoiseach with his latest U-turn explaining his personal finances. His new statement about the Revenue position on his tax affairs has directly contradicted his public statement of last week. If it is indeed the position that Revenue can finalise his tax affairs at any time. I would hope that he can now pay the amounts outstanding and obtain a valid tax clearance certificate. It is not a healthy situation for the prime minister of this country to stand up in the United States and address the Congress and the Senate when he does not have a tax clearance certificate in his own country.

I remind the Taoiseach that on 27 September 2006 he told this House that he "had checked the matter with the tax authorities long ago". He had not checked. On 26 September 2007, one year later, I asked him if he would make a personal statement correcting the record of the House and he told me he had not misled the House in any way. Even though we now know that the Taoiseach had not checked with the tax authorities, he still has not come before this House and corrected the record.

In his contribution on the motion of no confidence in the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste made a great virtue of political loyalty. He said "political loyalty is a virtue and that loyalty will be maintained by the Government for the Taoiseach." It is obvious that for him, political loyalty is paramount and more important than loyalty to the institutions of the State; the integrity of this House and the credibility of the Office of the Taoiseach.

The truth is that the Fianna Fáil Ministers are more interested in protecting their own political careers and the fortunes of the Fianna Fáil Party and in preventing the people from finding out the truth.

We have witnessed a new complacency, a new arrogance, a new smugness from a Government that has crawled back into office. It shows a new disdain for the House when misleading statements are left uncorrected and no new legislation is brought forward. There is a new smugness, a new self-satisfaction. As the country faces a range of serious economic and social challenges, these are the issues which the House should be discussing. I refer to the fact that a businessman pays €100,000 for an operation for a young child in County Cork when there is a National Treatment Purchase Fund that should be dealing with such a case. I refer to the fact that a young man was savagely attacked and died at the hands of an unfortunate person who had sought psychiatric treatment on three separate occasions and was not admitted to hospital, resulting in the death of a young man.

When people all over the country are losing confidence in the ability of the Government to deal with their daily concerns, we must resort to using the valuable time of this House because the Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, has not been in a position to provide a credible answer and a credible series of answers to questions about the movement of significant amounts of money — up to €300,000 in today's terms — through personal accounts which he held. In the 1990s, for whatever reason, bags of money landed on the desk in Drumcondra. That is not the way to do business and that has been underlined in the terms of setting up the tribunal and in comments made by people since then. That is not the way to do business on behalf of the public and it is the root cause of all this energy, all this paperwork, all this cost, because the truth is not coming out.

The Mahon tribunal is doing its duty independently, without bias and within its terms of reference as decided by this House. If those Ministers on the other side of the House wish to speak on this motion, they will have the opportunity to deal with the lack of bias, independence and fairness within the remit. We will give them that opportunity when they come in here to speak.

This motion is clear, simple and direct. The Government amendment is cobbled together and does not deal with those three central issues of the independence of the tribunal, its acting without bias and its acting within its remit. I commend the motion to the House.

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