Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is talking down the clock and I wish to speak. The Minister may well have put a new phrase into the Irish political lexicon this afternoon, which is the "inadvertent" corporate donation. To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune but to lose both looks like carelessness. I wonder what the bould Oscar might say about this debate tonight. To fail to disclose election donations and spending once might, at best, be said to be carelessness.

What exactly is it when it is done twice? Did the Minister receive assistance of this kind from Michael Stone in the general elections in 2007 or 2011? Did the then Minister, Eoghan Murphy, before appointing Michael Stone to the board of the Land Development Agency, ask the opinion of the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, or canvass his thoughts on that matter? He was aware of these problems before he was appointed Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform on 17 December last. Did he inform the Taoiseach that a potential controversy was brewing here? If not, why did he not do so?

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