Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I am a bit conflicted by this debate. I scanned the report, read the executive summary, wrote up notes, was briefed and took advice on it. I came into the House with a speech and then I heard the Taoiseach's remarks. It is a bit strange for people like me to come into the House and try to make sense of all of this. I believe in politics as a public service. I believe in republicanism. I served in the Assembly outside Belfast. There was none of the imagery of this institution on show.

I look at the bust of James Connolly behind me. I think of Pearse and the 1916 Proclamation. I think of Countess Markievicz, the first woman elected as Minister for Labour who died in a poor hospital. I then listen to what is being said here. The Fine Gael manifesto refers to golden circles, crony Government and crony capitalism. The Taoiseach talked about a full and substantive debate. This is not a full and substantive debate. This is a series of statements

I have no interest in Deputy Lowry. I accept the report. I do not know the man; I have never spoken to him. We should deal with him because the report was commissioned by the Dáil, incidentally not because someone wanted to sort the issue out. I am a newcomer. The Taoiseach has been here for, I understand, 36 years and knows everything that needs to be known about this institution.

The tribunal was set up because a well-known businessman went on the tear in Florida. In almost every instance when something gets into the public arena, the politicians have played catch up to try to deal with it. The section of the Fine Gael manifesto dealing with reform states: "In any Republic the people are supposed to be supreme. Judged by that standard Ireland today is a Republic in name only." They are the words of Fine Gael, not mine, and when I said this in the course of the election all sorts of commentators jumped all over me.

Here we are today. I am not naive. I learned my politics on the streets and in terms of campaigns, when I say I believe in republicanism, republicanism places citizens at the centre. The citizen is in charge - an phoblact, an pobal. It is about rights, equality and treating everyone properly and decently.

I was surprised when this report was published that it was business as usual here under this new regime given all I had read about, and seen and watched previously from the Visitors Gallery etc. I and other Sinn Féin Deputies sought time to debate this report, which was being debated the length and breadth of the country. When I say "the country", I mean the island. It is hard for me to get used to people speaking of "the nation." It does not stop at the Border. It is the entire nation and, as my friend Mr. Barry McElduff MLA would say, its offshore islands.

While this was being debated everywhere else the Government refused to allow it to be debated here. Then the Taoiseach's response to reasonable questions from me about the behaviour of Fine Gael, not my view but as outlined in the report, was to jibe about the Northern Bank robbery. It is fair enough if that is the way he wants to go with this, but it was hardly a mature or statesman-like response. I was disappointed in it because I always found the Taoiseach on a personal basis to be fair and decent.

If we are to have a debate about these issues, what we say rhetorically about bringing in a new era and rebuilding the republic, then let us deal with the issues in an up-front, friendly, fraternal but straightforward way.

That we are not having a proper debate today flies in the face of Government protestations that it is a Government of reform and it highlights the imperative of business in this Chamber to be conducted in a different way. There is no motion. We will talk our way through all of this, we will say what we say about it and sin é; the Government may or may not at some point bring in some measures. Sinn Féin is prepared to work with the Government because we believe, not in this Government, not even in Sinn Féin, but in a genuine republic on the island of Ireland. The Government has made some commitments in this direction.

I note the absence of the Tánaiste here today. Where is he? Why is he not here with the Taoiseach dealing with these matters?

In my view, the first challenge facing the Government in dealing with this report shows that it fell at the first hurdle. I accept that it was dropped on the Government and as far as I know, it did not have notice of the report. I do not make any judgment on any of that at all. Then there is the issue of tribunals. Sinn Féin supports the notion of tribunals although we do not support the notion of it taking 14 years and all the millions that were spent on it, etc. There are cases where one must have an investigation into some issues, but we cannot get investigations into other issues. Since I became a Teachta Dála, I have met citizens, such as women who were butchered in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital who cannot get an investigation into that, and others up and down the country who are trying to get ones. The people in this city who are living in slums, on Dominic Street, out the back of my party's head office, at Croke Villas, cannot get any sort of justice in terms of what they deserve as citizens.

If one wants an answer as to why there is a lack of confidence in the political system, it seems - this is a cliché - there is one law for the rich and one law for the poor. If one is part of the golden circle, one gets a tribunal. Where is the tribunal for the social offender? If someone is in poverty or falls into some offence - this is not to accept any wrongdoing - he or she gets hauled in and put through due process. What if one is a political activist? For instance, six of the Shell to Sea people are locked up for six months for trying to defend their communities after a corrupt decision by a Government that gave away natural resources. These law-abiding family men from the Taoiseach's county ended up in prison.

Where is the tribunal for the poor? The Taoiseach is well known; I still walk the streets. People who are trying to recover from drug addiction come to me. More people died from drug addiction in this capital city within the echo of the GPO than were killed at the height of the Troubles in similar neighbourhoods in the Six Counties. Why did it happen and why was it tolerated, and why did people have to fall back and defend themselves?

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