Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

I said to the media last week that we should not have any tribunal. We should have a Garda inquiry. References should be sent on to the Director of Public Prosecutions. There should be court cases. If anybody breaks the law, they should be before the courts rather than in an expensive tribunal. I believe we need the Criminal Assets Bureau and a proper inquiry at a very senior level of An Garda Síochána. This week, we saw the price of justice in Limerick. A decent family in the Minister of State's constituency had to leave this country because it had stood up to thuggery That should not have happened. It ill behoves us all in here to engage in cross-fire. The people want trust but they are not getting it. It is a pity that things have gone down that road.

I would like to speak about my former colleagues in Fianna Fáil. I have hundreds, thousands of friends in the Fianna Fáil Party. The highest of impeccable people up and down the country give their service to the party and to the country without ever expecting to get anything. They do it for love of country and for love of party. Indeed, my late father was a founding member of the party in my own area. The carry-on of a small number of people is hurting those people as well. Deputy Martin, who is now the leader of the party, has to deal with the residue of what is left of a cabal in my constituency of Tipperary South. The members of the cabal were the absolute architects of armageddon for the party, for the country and for the county. It is unfortunate that Deputy Martin is still dealing with the residue of that. He has to learn his own lessons there. He has to reach out over that cabal to the ordinary decent people of his party, in Tipperary South and beyond.

We have heard the findings of this tribunal and the last one, but what about the legacy? There have been no court cases. No one has been charged. What about the legacy? In fairness to the members of the mafia that has been mentioned, they are decent compared to some of the members of the cabal I have had to deal with during my political career in Tipperary South. What about Bertie Ahern? Who did he appoint as chairman of the ethics committee before he left here? All of these questions have to be asked. We are still dealing with the legacy of the very flawed judgment he showed. What about all of the many appointments to senior positions of trust that were made over the years? The vast majority of these people give top-class and outstanding service to this country. However, it is clear that there are bad apples in every bunch. I have come across a few of them. I have been the victim of a few of them. That is the legacy that has been left. How will that be cleaned out? I am disappointed that the new Government has made political appointment after political appointment to senior positions. I am talking about the justices and everything else. That system has to break. The Workers Party appointed them when it was there as well. I have no doubt that Sinn Féin would appoint them if it could get into government.

The system needs to be cleansed of political involvement because it is not safe. I became a victim of it. I am calling for a full-scale Garda inquiry. The Nora Wall case involved a friend of mine in Dungarvan. My own case was dragged through the courts. I want an inquiry into that because I believe there was political interference at the highest level. Openly political activists have been appointed as judges. I got one of them for my own court case. He did not come as a friend for me. He came to act on the behest of somebody else. It is just outrageous what went on, what is going on and what has gone on. Lives have been destroyed. People's families are in everyday trepidation and fear. There is political connectivity with senior positions in the Garda. I am talking about a small minority of gardaí. I support the Garda 100%. I am not talking about 99.9% of gardaí, but about one or two in the Dungarvan district, including a retired superintendent who was obviously the subject of a political appointment. A former Government Deputy went around boasting that he spoke to him and he was going to sort me out. In the name of God, the Mafia would pale into insignificance. He pointed out the kind of charges I was going to be charged with before I was ever charged. Thankfully, I was freed by a jury of my own peers. The fact that my judge could leave the court without ever dismissing the charges against my five co-defendants and myself-----

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