Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I read with interest the manifesto of the new Taoiseach, particularly where he described Fine Gael as a compassionate party that was committed to open rather than closed politics. He used the foreword to tell us that as a young man he had been attracted to Fine Gael because he had been inspired by what he described as the party's "unshakeable integrity" in how politics should operate. Today, however, we watched as someone who had been the subject of the gravest findings by the Moriarty tribunal became Fine Gael's kingmaker. Deputy Michael Lowry now has access to the Government and the highest political office in the land because the Taoiseach can count on him. The Moriarty tribunal ran for 13 years and cost the State in excess of €55 million, yet its findings have not been acted on. We find ourselves in a situation where the election of a Fine Gael Taoiseach is being facilitated by one of the key players in that tribunal, while a controversial company, Siteserv, now known as Actavo and owned by the other person against whom the tribunal made its findings - they were about corruption - was the supplier to the Houses of the Oireachtas of the barriers used for the Taoiseach's walk of honour in the grounds this afternoon. It beggars belief and serves only to remind us why trust in government and politics has been decimated. If the Taoiseach believes in the phrase "Start as you mean to go on", the events of today mark an inauspicious start for the Government. Is this the unshakeable integrity the Taoiseach says inspired him about Fine Gael's politics?

Politics and governing must be about an ethical enterprise.

One cannot ask people to have faith and trust in anything less. The programme for a partnership Government talks of greater openness, improved accountability and delivery of more effective public participation but the challenge of the new Cabinet as it sits here this evening is not to spend time finding nice lines about accountability and restoring trust in politics, lines that work in manifesto documents, but to make actions speak louder than words. The newish Cabinet assembled here tonight will be judged on its actions rather than its words. I wish people well in their new positions but now that the phony war is over, we need to start seeing some real actions on some key issues such as, for example, housing.

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