Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)

I agree. I wish to assure the House that the membership comprises of good and honest people and they are members of the party for the right reasons. They have spent many years knocking on doors, working in the community, organising national collections for the party outside church gates and in that case, they have accounted for every penny. It is an absolute betrayal of those members when it is found that some of our key party representatives acted in such a manner as has been found in this tribunal and in other fora. I can assure the House there is no cloud over my name nor any cloud over the people who support me nor over the membership of the party. However, we have been betrayed by the actions of some of these people and I assure the House there will be no truck with such people in the future. The party will continue with the good spirit and commitment of those of whom we can be proud. However, we have been betrayed and we are not proud of what has happened. We have a job to win back the trust of the public but I am confident that with the spirit of the membership of the party we can do this and we have to make that effort.

I remind the House that Fianna Fáil has introduced a Bill dealing with political donations and a Bill dealing with the registration of lobbyists and it also made a contribution to much of the ethics legislation introduced in recent years by the previous two Governments in order to regulate political donations. There is an onus on all parties and on all those involved in politics to act on the findings of the tribunal to ensure that this type of activity can never happen again.

Other Members have referred to the Fianna Fáil Party as if every member of the party is the same. The Mahon tribunal also found against members of other political parties, certain Fine Gael members and one Labour Party member and Independents-----

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