Michael McCarthy (Labour)

While I concur with previous speakers in commending Mr. Justice Flood for a very wide ranging and forensic analysis of the behaviour of a number of people who, unfortunately, could describe themselves in their curricula vitae as public representatives. When one refines the role of the public representative, one discovers the majority of them are councillors. The figure central to the interim Flood report was also at the heart of suspicions that, at minimum, a large number of votes on rezoning in Dublin County Council were questionable.

The report raises very serious issues. On some occasions the gallery was packed with lobbyists and people employed by another august organisation. The votes on land rezoning were taken contrary to all good planning regulations and against the advice of the officials and management of the council. It then fell on the Houses of the Oireachtas to establish the Flood tribunal. Nobody should believe that the tribunal was set up by the Government or the Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern. It was established by the Houses.

Last year, some 12 months before the general election, Mr. Justice Flood requested extra personnel to assist him and his team. Conveniently, because the personnel in question were not allocated, we first had the benefit of the report in September this year, several months after the election. There is more than a hint of coincidence in the timing of the report's publication and the denial of additional legal expertise to assist the most significant figure unearthing planning scandals in expediting the workings of his tribunal.

When we saw the report, none of us was surprised. It was a damning indictment of Ray Burke, the Government in which he served and the man who had brought him back from political obscurity to appoint him Minister for Foreign Affairs, one of the most significant portfolios in Cabinet. Despite the fact that major questions had not been answered regarding Mr. Burke's activities as a member of a Dublin local authority, the Taoiseach pressed ahead with his appointment.