Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)

If the figures provided by the Taoiseach during his speech on the programme for Government are correct, some 9,000 people have left this country since the recent general election. In other words, the equivalent of the combined populations of Roscommon town and Carrick-on-Shannon have emigrated. At a time when we should be dealing with such an emergency, we are tied up with this charade.

I do not know whether it was more difficult to listen to Deputy Lowry telling us he has been done wrong, to people in Fine Gael telling us they want to change things in the future even though they benefited from the old system to get elected, or to people in Fianna Fáil talking about how they are bothered by corruption. I have made up my mind - I am most bothered by Fianna Fáil coming in here to talk about corruption.

I listened to Deputy Calleary earlier when he spoke about those who think we are "all at it". In his opinion, why do people think politicians are "all at it"? Why do they think we are all on the take? It is fairly obvious that one of the main reasons they hold that opinion is that his party has proven in the past, and will probably prove in the future, that not all politicians are whiter than white.

When I listened to Deputy Lowry as he read his script yesterday, I thought he sounded convinced that he has been wronged. I suppose if one did not know an awful lot about it, one could have been slightly convinced by him yesterday. Regardless of what he says, at the end of the day his case does not add up. I know who I believe. I believe Mr. Justice Moriarty rather than Deputy Lowry.

That we needed a tribunal in the first place is what really confuses me about this whole situation. Deputy Lowry is not the only politician to have been investigated by this State for the last 14 years. After I ran in my first general election in June 1997, the State clearly started to investigate me. There was no need for a tribunal for someone like me. The State simply sent the Garda Síochána after me.

If Deputy Lowry believes he has had a stressful 14 years, he should think again. He should try being strip-searched on six occasions. He should try being searched on 18 other occasions. He should try being incarcerated on two occasions. He should try having his friend's children pulled out of a bed in the middle of the night by those who are investigating his activities. He should try having the State threaten his future and that of his children. If Deputy Lowry tries all of that, he will see what is stressful.

As far as I can see, when the State wants to protect important people, it organises a tribunal. There is one rule for one class of people and another rule for those who do not have money to do their talking for them. Last week, I was deemed to be such a threat to the future of this State that an editorial in the magazine of the Garda Representative Association, Garda Review, expressed unease about my election to the Dáil.

My crime was not creaming hundreds of millions of euro or pounds from the State, taking backhanders, allowing people to die on hospital trolleys or shuffling money around the world as a tax exile. My crime was to allow a seed to germinate - shock, horror. Many other people are committing such terrible crimes at the moment, but they will not be treated as Deputy Lowry has been treated.

How serious is the State about going after real wrongdoers? Will there be an editorial in next month's Garda Review calling for an end to political corruption? Will it call on the State to change its tax laws so that people like Denis O'Brien pay their fair share? If there was a few more quid in the State, the members of the Garda might not have to pay the universal social charge. The reason I do not think we will see such editorials is that this country has one law for the rich and another law for the poor.

Now that the matters in the Moriarty report have been passed on to the Garda, it is important for the force to act with the same level of urgency as it does when it is dealing with the average person. If that does not happen, the people of Ireland will lose faith in politicians and the law forever more, which would be a sad day. Approximately a month before the general election, a nice Polish man told me that I make a bad politician. When I asked him why, he told me it is because I keep telling the truth. Is that not a sad indictment of what people think about politicians?

See this speech in context