Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Fianna Fáil acknowledged the need for this legislation during the general election campaign and we committed to introducing this Bill. I am pleased that I and my colleagues can endorse and support the Bill. I urge all other parties, including those in government, to join forces considering the universal willingness to dismantle and cease the corporate donations system.

The Taoiseach reneged on such a commitment before but I hope he will not renege on it again. I hope the Taoiseach and his Government will see fit to support the Bill. I have no wish to rehearse the matter and many speakers in our party and in other parties have referred to the abuses of the funding mechanisms which have been in place over the years. As Deputy Moynihan stated, we bring the Bill to the House with the best intentions, goodwill and good faith. Fianna Fáil made this honourable commitment to the public and has now produced this elaborate and all-encompassing Bill, which contains many of the key Moriarty tribunal recommendations. In the course of this debate, some of the Government speakers said how committed they are to the implementation of those recommendations; this Bill offers the opportunity to prove that commitment.

The most significant part of the Bill introduces restrictions on corporate donations from companies, trade unions and societies, as Deputy Moynihan said. To get back to the present Government and where it stands in this regard, it promised legislation to ban corporate donations. It stated that it would not support this Bill but is that a surprise? The coalition also promised to abolish the Seanad within a year and that is not to be the case. The coalition promised political reform by reducing the number of TDs by 20 but based on the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government's remarks last week, that plan has gone out the window. In March Fine Gael said it would reduce the number of Ministers of State to 12; that went out the window. Fine Gael promised to abolish 145 quangos; that has gone out the window - it has created 36 new quangos. The red line issues prior to the election, the dismantling the IMF-EU deal and not putting another cent into the banks, are out the window as well. The one thing it did not promise was that it would take savings from pensioners, which it did yesterday and committed to do for the next four years.

Despite the clever optics and spin and the prolonged honeymoon from the media, this coalition is failing on all the famous red line issues it identified prior to the election. That was during the time of the politics of fear. We remember the carry on, the name calling, with the Tánaiste, Deputy Gilmore, accusing certain people of economic treason. The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, said the country was banjaxed. Now, however, the Government is adhering to the very same banking policy it ridiculed then, buying into the necessary austerity. The new spin in the past week or two is that it has been constrained by a straitjacket. Thank God it has a straitjacket around it because those are the sorts of policies it must pursue.

The only input that has shown any sense of individualism from the Government was yesterday's jobs initiative, despite the fact that it did not meet the target set before the election of 100,000 jobs with a €7 billion investment. Much that was in the plan is welcome, especially for the hotel and leisure industries, which needed a leg up; I acknowledge that and pay tribute to it. Many other parts of the plan are the usual rehash and repackaging, whether it is roads or schools or other work that would take place anyway. They were packaged well and sold to give an impression. We are back to the sort of spin that was deplored. The Government could save itself from having to climb down again by supporting this Bill.

Deputy Ó Cuív referred last night to the policy of Sinn Féin TDs, who donate part of their salary to their party. Is this legal? Is it a political donation? Is it taxed? I do not know but I ask Sinn Féin, in this House or outside, to come out and makes a statement on the matter and make a commitment with the same vigour many of its speakers showed when they attacked us for the perceived hypocrisy - in Sinn Féin's opinion - of us bringing forward a Bill of this nature.

I commend the Bill to the House and ask for wholehearted support for it.

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