Brendan Ryan (Labour)

To listen to the Government, particularly the Fianna Fáil element, one would think the world only began yesterday. There were reasons the electoral Acts were changed to control expenditure, reasons we all now have to disclose donations, election expenditure is regulated and there is ethics in public office legislation. Overwhelmingly, this is the case because people connected with Fianna Fáil disgraced the profession of politics by, in one case, living a lifestyle entirely funded by his friends and, in another – in the words of the Flood tribunal – the corrupt abuse of power in ministerial office. Those are the reasons we had to deal with the question of money and politics.