Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I have two questions. This issue is being debated on the airwaves, in television studios, in coffee rooms and front rooms all over this island and, for all we know, in different parts of the world where there is an interest in Irish affairs. It is not being debated in this House. Why are we being prevented from having a change in the Order of Business to allow debate to proceed this afternoon? This is a pressing issue, one of the most important issues facing the Government at this time. I come back to what the Taoiseach has referred to consistently, the gap between the governed and the Government, between citizens and the people in the political class. That gap is widened by the refusal to have the type of debate that is required.

Second, I commend to the Taoiseach the part of the Moriarty report which deals with the $50,000 donation to Fine Gael. It reads like a novel. It tells how a payment was solicited on behalf of Fine Gael, how this was to be done at a dinner which would be attended by the then Taoiseach and then Ministers, Deputies Lowry, Barrett, Ivan Yates, Kenny, and Mr. Peter Sutherland. We are also conscious that at the time Deputies Bruton, Howlin, Quinn, Noonan, Kenny, Lowry and Barrett were Ministers. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, is also named in the report.

After many very convoluted processes it fell on that unfortunate man, Mr. Johansen, to make the donation. He said he would need "some form of paper documentation" and was told by the Fine Gael representative that he would be issued with an invoice and that this would be expressed as having been-----

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