Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

On behalf of the Labour Party, I too welcome the Bill before the House, in so far as it goes. I have a bit of a will-o'-the-wisp relationship with the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. I present at a committee on legislation, expecting him to be there, and I find a Minister of State in his stead. I come into the House, expecting him to introduce this Bill, and again I find a Minister of State. While I do not wish to reflect on any Minister of State, there are certain matters for which the senior Minister ought to be present. He ought to present his own arguments for the Bill but that is not happening in this case.

There are three items of legislation that precede independence dealing with this issue and when we enact this Bill, there will be three items of legislation post-independence dealing with corruption. The 1889 Act did not make any reference at all, good, bad or indifferent, to central government. Essentially, it dealt with local government. It is very interesting to see the kinds of issues that were raised at that time. My colleague, Deputy Michael D. Higgins, who did some work on this once, advises me that the outstanding authority is K. Theodore Hoppen and that the prevalence of lemons to be squeezed into whiskey to induce people to vote was one of the major matters addressed. We have come a long way since then.

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