Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

Earlier in the debate I was in my office reading and I watched a procession of Ministers come forward to speak in the debate, ably led by the ever-constructive Minister for Justice and Law Reform, Deputy Shatter, who proceeded to ignore every substantive fact in the Moriarty report and instead - without a prepared script - attacked me and the Fianna Fáil Party. The election is over. Blaming Fianna Fáil bogeymen for everything simply is not going to cut it anymore. I put it to the Taoiseach that I want real responses to the questions that are being asked.

On the pattern of Fine Gael fund-raising between 1995 and 1996, I asked the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, whether he considered it wrong and inappropriate to facilitate that conspicuous pattern of contributions of up to €28,000 from Esat Digifone in a short period at a time when a competition for a licence was under way for the single most lucrative contract ever awarded by the State. It is clear from the report that the strategic purpose of that was to build influence within Fine Gael. Does the Taoiseach now accept that it was incredible that no one shouted "Stop" within the Fine Gael Party and that it was wrong and inappropriate? The point on the Telenor payment is that all sorts of benign language is being used about it being "incorrect" and that the money was returned but it was Fine Gael which solicited the donation and issued a false invoice about consultancy work in regard to it. It was Fine Gael which ensured the money went to an offshore account so as to make it covert. Does the Taoiseach accept the covert nature in which that payment and all the other payments were handled? We know from the letter from Sarah Carey to the Minister, Deputy Hogan, about the golf classic that the donor did not wish anyone to know he was making the donation. In the context of a competition, such covert behaviour was wrong and inappropriate. Somebody in Fine Gael should have shouted "stop" regarding the conspicuous lobbying and fund-raising. It was clearly designed to enhance the influence of the consortium on the Fine Gael Party at the time. Was the Telenor donation just an isolated incident? Was it part of a covert corporate fund-raising campaign by Fine Gael? Does that explain how Fine Gael cleared at the time a €1.6 million debt, about which there was no clarity or transparency? Can the Taoiseach assure us that no other donations travelled the same route as the Telenor cheque? The Taoiseach used the phrase "circuitous route" but I would use the phrase "deliberately covert and secretive route".

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