Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate RTE on the superb piece of public service broadcasting we saw last night. The "RTE Investigates" programme on corruption was journalism at its best. While some people might be shocked by the blatant “I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine” approach we saw displayed by a number of councillors, for most of us it just confirmed what we have suspected for a long time. Corruption remains a significant problem in Irish public life.

The truth is that Ireland does not have an effective way of preventing, detecting and prosecuting corruption. The law on corruption is scattered across several pieces of legislation. Responsibility for detecting corruption is spread across a number of different public bodies. It is very difficult and rare to see successful prosecutions of corrupt practices in business or public life. This is the case even after tribunals of inquiry have spent millions of euro on investigations, and even when they have made adverse findings against particular individuals or bodies.

Ireland’s chequered history with tribunals, ad hoccommissions of inquiry and the various investigations into ruinous banking practices instil very little public confidence in our ability to tackle corruption in Ireland in any kind of meaningful way. Indeed, the most recent inquiry, the Cregan inquiry, appears to be on the point of collapse as it does not have enough powers to investigate properly. As we have seen, the Taoiseach is scrambling around to try to get advice from people on both sides of the House as to how he might proceed.

We have heard the same complaints from the Fennelly inquiry into Garda whistleblowing. It has made a request for more powers, resources and lawyers. When will we ever get anything arising from either of those inquiries? There is no sense at all that the regime is robust, effective or, indeed, free from the clutches of those in power. There is a strong public perception that a golden circle continues to exist in Irish society, the members of which regard themselves as being accountable to no one and untouchable.

Accountability is a core pillar for us in the Social Democrats, and is a central part of our vision for a new republic. Of course, we know there can be no accountability without consequences for those who are involved in wrongdoing. This is the standard we have seen; we seem to be incapable as a society of tackling problems with corruption or wrongdoing. We have had a series of tribunals which all cost a fortune. We have had commissions of inquiry, five of which are current. We know that at the end of the process, after all of the time and all of the talk, what we will get out of them is a report and there will be no significant consequences for any of those people found to be involved in wrongdoing in the course of those inquiries. We know those reports are left to gather dust.

Earlier this year, I tabled questions to the Minister for Justice and Equality asking what is the latest on a number of the recommendations made in the Moriarty report. I was told the Department is still looking at the two reports from March 2011 and 2012 and the likely timeframe cannot be indicated with any certainty at this point. There is no sense of urgency about any of the very serious matters which arose in the Moriarty tribunal. The Minister went on to state that following the examination by An Garda Síochána of the report of the Moriarty tribunal, the advice of the DPP was sought with a view to determining whether a full Garda investigation should be commenced. The advice is still awaited four years later. How can anybody be expected to believe the Government gives a damn about accountability? No system is in place to ensure people involved in very serious wrongdoing and corruption will pay any price. Fine Gael has a very ambiguous relationship with a number of public representatives who have been found to be involved in very serious wrongdoing by tribunals and other investigations. All we get is silence, hand-wringing and a hope that it will just go away.

What exactly will be the consequences for the three councillors highlighted in the "RTE Investigates" programme? The most that has happened to them so far is that they have resigned from their parties but, of course, that is just not enough. They should be resigning from their posts. The type of behaviour we saw in the programme last night renders these people unfit for office. A very clear judgment should be taken on this by their respective parties. I call on the leader of Fianna Fáil, Deputy Martin, and the Taoiseach to address these issues. Their respective councillors, albeit very recently resigned from their parties, have been engaged in practices that are completely and utterly unacceptable. The Taoiseach remarked today that it is indefensible but he has not moved to ensure the councillor from his party will resign. The two party leaders should call on those councillors to do the decent thing and resign from office.

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