Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)

There is much hypocrisy in politics but that of Fianna Fáil in bringing forward this Private Members' Bill is unbelievable. Restoring decency and faith in public life and the public system will not be done by legislation; therefore, significant further changes beyond the scope of this Bill will be needed. We must change the whole ethos of public life, both as public representatives and within the public service, where bad practices have crept in and been almost institutionalised in the era of Fianna Fáil dominance of political power. The crass arrogance of pious Deputy Micheál Martin is difficult to stomach for the people. When they have to listen to him lecture them about corruption and payments to politicians, they must ask themselves what they are hearing. For Fianna Fáil to try to take credit for acting on the issue of political donations is almost beyond belief and it sickens people to watch this Bill being brought forward. Fianna Fáil should be wearing sackcloth and considering disbanding as a political party, not lecturing the people or trying to pretend it has had a pious change of heart about what has happened in public life in recent years.

It is difficult to run for election and be elected. I do not know if political donations hold great sway in the way people like to believe. I have won elections having received little or no funding and I have lost elections having received a reasonable amount of funding. I have also seen people run very good election campaigns with very little funding. People are sensible about this. However, given all the corruption in recent years, what they want to see is accountability and transparency in how we go about our business. They want to see an end to the days when somebody like Ray Burke could be appointed as a Minister when a cloud was hanging over his head - a person subsequently jailed for tax fraud. They want to see an end to a time when a person like Liam Lawlor, a former Member of this House, was made chairman of the ethics committee of the House. Members at that time knew Liam Lawlor had a cloud over his reputation but they appeared to cock their noses at what people felt or might feel about ethics in public office. They want to see an end to a time when a former elected Taoiseach, the leader of this country, tried to pass off the fact that he earned his money by putting bets on horses. That is the era we must get rid of in Irish public life. We must bring in more honesty and transparency, and a sense of decency about being involved in public life.

I do not claim we will all be perfect and squeaky clean. It does not work like that. There will be things I do believe to be reasonably okay; there will be things my colleague in County Wexford, Deputy Wallace, will do that he will believe to be reasonably okay but which I believe are wrong. That is just the way life is. What we need most of all are accountability to the people, proper transparency about how we go about our business and get elected, and to be honest and decent in how we do our job.

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