Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I beg leave of Deputy Ferris to give me slightly more time.

It is all here, and I will quote. Others have quoted it, but I will do my best. In terms of the infamous €50,000, the report states:

...the immediate donor was ... outside ... the jurisdiction; that the donation was misrepresented in the books of the immediate donor; that it was transmitted [via] ... a covert off-shore route, ... that on its face there appeared to be no disbursement [of] ... Telenor to Fine Gael; that, following its rejection by Fine Gael, the payment reposed for some time in an off-shore account in the Channel Islands, where it was retained under the control of the late Mr. David Austin [a Fine Gael fund-raiser]; that is was subsequently introduced to party funds, disguised as a personal contribution by Mr. Austin; and that the ... [money] was initially made at a time when the Esat Digifone consortium, of which Telenor was a key member, was engaged in direct negotiations with a Department of State, for which a Fine Gael Minister had direct Cabinet responsibility, namely Mr. Michael Lowry.

The report further states, "Of equal significance were donations made to Fianna Fáil in the context of the 1989 General Election by Custom House Docks Development Company, and by Dr. Michael Smurfit.", and it goes on to detail all of that.

Sin é, that is the report. There is a series of reports gathering dust somewhere else. The Taoiseach speaks of it being a small country and a proud nation, and so we are. I am not here to preach or moralise, but we are better than this. The only way this will be sorted out is if the connection between big business, financiers and all of those elites and the political class is broken, if we put in place processes which are transparent and which serve citizens, and if we understand that society is made up of people, communities and families who are equal to everyone in this House.

I do not sit down inspired in any way that the Government will do right on all of those issues. I am open to be convinced. However, this party, Sinn Féin, will do its best within our lights to ensure, as every day we try to build a real republic on this island, that the mission statement of that republic is the Proclamation of 1916, not a manifesto of any other political party which can be turned around in the back of an election and made to mean whatever happens to be expedient at that time.

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