Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We have heard it all before. Every time the Taoiseach says it, it just gets ignored. When he talked about honesty being the order of the day, the key point is that when somebody does something right in the Civil Service to ensure the public is safeguarded, they get punished. When a person does something wrong, and the State watchdog is scathing in its delivery of a report on that wrongdoing, they get a round of applause and a standing ovation from a county council led by a Fianna Fáil chair, Ms Barbara-Anne Murphy. That is the point. If that is the picture the Taoiseach wants to paint, that is very damning in itself. We have a report that is damning to the core of standards in public office but that appears to be without consequence for the chief executive. As a result, the wrongdoings will be repeated and ongoing, causing a scandal for Wexford.

This no longer an issue for the councillors. It is now a political issue. As far as I am concerned, while all the parties supported the chief executive and ignored the report, the Taoiseach's party led the council through the chair, Barbara-Anne Murphy. If the Taoiseach cannot take charge of the matter, appoint an independent investigator and place the chief executive on garden leave pending an outcome, we do not have much regard for freedom of the press.

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