Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

As this is the Minister's first official duty in his new position, I wish him well. The Taoiseach, Deputy Kenny, indicated earlier that he was not taking this matter because the questions were directed to the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte. For the record of the House, when I first tabled my question, I addressed it to the Taoiseach and subsequently changed it, having been advised that the questions were being taken by the Minister. It is an important point for the record. I would prefer that the Taoiseach had the opportunity to respond to these questions.

Does the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, accept that his predecessor as Minister with responsibility for communications, Deputy Michael Lowry, abused his position as Minister when he was directly involved in awarding the licence to his favoured candidate, Denis O'Brien, and Esat Digifone? Does he accept the former Minister, Deputy Lowry, abused his position, based on what he now knows the report contains? I accept the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, has not had the opportunity to study the report in full. Does the Minister acknowledge the great anger that exists given that, following the expenditure of some €150 million of taxpayers' money and the passage of 14 years, we are only now having the full truth properly exposed in this report today? Does he also accept there is a public expectation that this is not where the matter finishes?

The Minister's initial response referred to measured and appropriate action. Will the findings of this report be referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions? Will the Minister, as he indicated earlier, seek a meeting with the Attorney General to address such action and seek her advice and guidance on how the Minister and the Government will proceed in regard to the findings of the Moriarty report? When does the Minister intend to consult the Attorney General on this matter?

There is an absolute need for people to be held to account, and I do not only mean Ministers or Deputies but also citizens who have benefited from any irregularity of this nature and on this scale, which is quite incredible. Against the information released in regard to so-called white-collar crime, we must recognise that the courts of this land had no difficulty sending to jail ordinary decent people who have campaigned to protect their own homes, communities and the natural resources of this land. I refer to the Rossport five. Many others who were coping with real difficulties in their lives were sent to prison for paltry offences and the failure to pay paltry fines. This report must not be an end in itself.

The Minister should also address the issue of Deputy Lowry having repeatedly attacked in vehement terms within and outside this House the Moriarty tribunal and its sole member. Does the Minister reject Deputy Lowry's attack on the sole member and on the tribunal? What is the Minister's response, as a member of the junior party in the coalition, to the report's criticism of the Fine Gael Party for not revealing the clandestine nature of a $50,000 donation made by Denis O'Brien after his company won the second mobile phone licence competition? There are serious questions to be answered in that regard also and I would expect that not only the Minister but the junior partner in this coalition would recognise it is very convenient that this report has presented today, just three weeks after a general election when the senior party, which was particularly named in the report, recorded its best performance in all the elections over the entire 14 year duration of the Moriarty tribunal's sittings.

We have heard the Taoiseach's response to the issue of addressing this report in the House. Does the Minister share Opposition Deputies' views that this report should be addressed as quickly as possible by all Members of the House? We can cut to the chase and get to the core of what the sole tribunal member has told us. While it may not require reading all 2,500 pages tonight, we will not be impaired in addressing the critical findings of the report in this House and in doing so as early as possible. Does the Minister believe we should do this with the urgency the matter certainly requires?

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