Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

This debate is about the credibility of the entire political system, which has been battered as a result of a series of scandals which have revealed the rotten relationship between politics and big business. Like most people, I feel that the rotten relationship in question has contributed to the desperate situation in which we now find ourselves. People want to know that things have genuinely changed, that we are serious about getting to the bottom of the matter and that we intend to change that relationship. That would give real meaning to the noble aspirations enunciated by the Taoiseach in his speech.

I concur with Deputy Halligan's assertion that when one listens to Fianna Fáil interrogating the Government about cronyism in this particular instance, one really thinks one is living in a parallel universe. That party has been the master of cronyism and cute hoor politics. It will need a substantial decontamination period before any comments it makes on this subject can be taken seriously.

I have no reason not to believe what the Moriarty report says about Deputy Lowry. It says he was guilty of tax evasion. It says he abused his position by trying to benefit Mr. Ben Dunne, from whom he received payments. It says he delivered the huge contract for the second GSM licence for Denis O'Brien, from whom he received substantial payments. For the majority of people, what most churns the stomach is the fact that the beneficiary in this case, Denis O'Brien, is a tax exile. He has not shown the country that enriched him and made him a multi-millionaire the gratitude of bothering to stay here to pay tax on what I consider to be his ill-gotten gains.

All of that is in the past, to some extent. We need to focus on the extent to which this Government is serious about making real change in this area. I have a few questions for the Taoiseach in that context. Will the Government provide the House with a list of the corporate donors to his recent election campaign? In February of this year, the Irish Daily Mail revealed that companies like Johnny Ronan's Treasury Holdings, Cement Roadstone Holdings, the EBS and a company owned by JP McManus had made contributions to Fine Gael fund-raising events. If the election of this Government was financed by significant corporate donations from people in the golden circle, it is hard to give much credit to its promises to get rid of corporate donations. Will the Taoiseach name all of those who donated to Fine Gael's election campaign, or the campaigns of individual Fine Gael Deputies, including those who made payments of less than the threshold amounts?

I ask the Taoiseach to state honestly if any representatives of the Government met Deputy Lowry in order to elicit the support he provided during the recent election of the Taoiseach in this Chamber. Did any meetings take place? Was any agreement reached? Were any undertakings given to Deputy Lowry with regard to what he might expect in exchange for the support he gave the Taoiseach and his Government?

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