Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important Bill, which is finally before the House. It is ironic that a Fianna Fáil-led Government is introducing this Bill, given the long list of Deputies who have fallen foul of corruption charges. The Bill was drafted because of a damning report from the OECD. At every opportunity, Fianna Fáil has chosen to delay the introduction of anti-corruption legislation. A good example concerns the whistleblowers legislation in 1999. The Bill before us will effectively amend the 2001 legislation, providing for more anti-corruption laws. Hopefully, it will bring Ireland into line with the convention on the bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions.

I particularly welcome the section which allows whistleblowers some protection in reporting cases of corruption in Irish companies. It is essential that the Minister should have all parties on board for this legislation and all private and public sector business must be made fully aware of its implications and provisions. There is no point in placing legislation on the Statute Book if it is not going to be implemented.

Deputy Rabbitte referred to the ethics in public office legislation introduced by the rainbow coalition, but how many people will be prosecuted as a result of the legislation currently before us? It is incumbent on the Minister to report to the House on the workings of the legislation, including the number of prosecutions arising from it.

The Bill before the House will allow the Director of Public Prosecutions, in response to Garda investigations, to bring more prosecutions against companies and individuals who engage in corrupt foreign transactions. This places a big onus on An Garda Síochána and for that reason more resources must be forthcoming from the Government to allow the legislation to work.

The OECD report of March 2007 was most critical of the Government's attempts to deliver on its commitments under the convention on bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions. We need to pull up our socks in this regard. The OECD report pointed to a number of areas in which we are falling down. The OECD was disappointed at the low attendance by key Departments and bodies, despite being invited to meet OECD officials on this matter. It gives a poor impression of Ireland when departmental bodies did not even have the courtesy to turn up to the OECD meetings. The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform informed the OECD that no awareness campaigns on the convention had taken place for the private sector. How in God's name is legislation supposed to work if companies have not been informed or consulted? In drawing up this legislation, I hope the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has consulted with all private and public sector companies.

The OECD was also critical of the absence of whistleblower protection for private and public sector employees. All these issues must be fully addressed in this legislation and there is no room for short-cuts in this respect.

I welcome the section of the Bill dealing with whistleblowers, which is not before time. Will the Minister now consider more favourably the introduction of a more comprehensive Bill concerning whistleblowers? Such legislation is badly needed.

Many of this Bill's provisions result from the recommendations of the OECD in its report last year. That report criticised the Government's failure to put in place adequate protection, both for public and private sector whistleblowers. This is interesting in light of the response by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to the Morris tribunal's report last week, which was debated in the House. It has been well documented how the Minister and one of his backbenchers spent quite an amount of their speaking time attacking the performance of former Deputy Jim Higgins and the current Leas-Cheann Comhairle, Deputy Howlin. They tried to deal with an issue which at the time could potentially have been interpreted as one of corruption. In that instance, the Minister largely chose to ignore the substantial conclusion of the Morris tribunal, trying instead to muddy the waters once again by questioning the integrity of Members of this House. What message does that send out? Can we have faith that the Minister believes in this type of legislation, or is he merely going through the motions? The fact that he is not here to introduce the Bill, despite the order being in place to facilitate him, speaks volumes.

Exposing corruption is never easy. It is a lonely place for individuals trying to redress wrongs. They run the risk of ridicule and estrangement. The least one would expect is the acknowledgement and support of the State through legislation and attitude in the initial stages. The Minister is a figurehead regarding all these types of issues. If last week's performance is anything to go by, however, there must be an element of hypocrisy involved in bringing this legislation before the House.

We should consider the record of the main Government party in dealing with corruption over the years. It took Fianna Fáil a full 16 months to implement a mandatory code of ethics for public representatives following an assurance in 1998 that such a code would be introduced. At the time, that party did not comprehend that it was doing something wrong. It took 16 months for it to act on this fundamental legislation. Former Deputy Ray Burke whom the then Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern appointed to a very senior Cabinet position, received a large donation of money, the sum of £38,000. The former Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, initially claimed he had carried out extensive inquires regarding the bona fides of Ray Burke but these inquiries were so casual and superficial that they were tantamount to a cover up. This is what has been going on in this country and what has been allowed to go on from the very top down, from a Taoiseach. This sends out a completely wrong message to every citizen and to every person in this State who does his or her job and pays taxes. This behaviour has been allowed to continue from the top down.

Mr. Tom Gilmartin handed over £50,000 to the former EU Commissioner, Pádraig Flynn in the late 1980s in order to secure planning permission and again with the knowledge of Bertie Ahern. The Government changed its line on five separate occasions, just like in the case of the medical card debacle last week when the Government changed its tune. In the case of Mr. Gilmartin, they stated that no one in Government knew the man. Second, the then Taoiseach said it would be entirely wrong to comment. Third, he said he had only one brief meeting with Mr. Gilmartin. Fourth, he then found records of two or more meetings but said he could not recollect them. Finally, he admitted there might after all have been telephone conversations with Mr. Gilmartin and mention of money to Mr. Flynn may have been made but he could not remember.

The long line of Fianna Fáil people in and out of the tribunals down through the years is an indictment and these matters must be addressed by society. We must ensure that people in public office live up to high standards. This is the very reason this legislation is not before time and it is welcomed by Fine Gael.

The purpose of this Bill is to extend the categories of persons to whom the 2001 Act applies, extending the extra-territorial application of the 2001 Act and creating the protection for whistleblowers. The whistleblowers provision included in the Bill will allow employees of companies who wish to report corrupt actions and offer them protection from any sanction from their employers and this is welcome. Fine Gael notes that it is a welcome, though very late acceptance by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, of the need for whistleblower legislation. He might now bring forward a more thorough Act on the subject in the coming months.

I refer to the recommendations of the 2006 annual report of the Standards in Public Office Commission. The report included a chapter on recommendations for legislative change to improve the oversight of standards in Irish politics. The commission pointed out that it had made many of these recommendations previously on an ad hoc basis but that none of them had been given consideration by the Government. The commission had made specific recommendations that could have been included in the Ethics in Public Office (Amendment) Bill 2007 but these were ignored. These included a clear standard of acceptable behaviour, the power to initiate inquiry and standards in State bodies. All these issues need to be addressed by Government.

The country is currently facing a recession, principally because Fianna Fáil-led Governments have based all their budgets on a housing bubble that could not last. Major developers have done well out of this but the ordinary person has not. It was remarked to me recently that in many parts of Ireland the Celtic tiger was no more than a castrated cat when it visited the west and I agree with that sentiment. Areas such as west and east Clare have not seen high employment figures. Another focus is needed other than the culture of nod and wink politics and the paper bag. The Government just looks away and does not try to address the problem. This comes from the top down and it is stomach-churning. This Bill is the sort of legislation that is needed. We need to see leadership from the top down, from the new Taoiseach down. It is most important that we as the body politic, as elected public representatives of the country, as Members of Dáil Éireann, stand up and be honest and up-front with people. We must be anti-corruption at every crossroads. For that reason I support this legislation.

Enough damage has been done to politics down through the years. If nothing else, we are sending out a clear message that maybe finally, Fianna Fáil has learned a lesson from the past, that corruption is not good for the country and is not good for the image of the country. Unfortunately, what happened in the past has tarred all politicians with the same brush. I support the provisions of this Bill and its passage through the House.

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