Seanad debates

Wednesday, 27 September 2006

2:30 pm

Photo of Brian HayesBrian Hayes (Fine Gael)

At the start of each session I ask on behalf of my colleagues, and the Leader of the House normally gives a full reply, for an outline of the legislation that will come before the House between now and Christmas. It would be useful to do that in the next week, with the Leader detailing the Bills that will be debated following the publication of the legislative programme by the Government Chief Whip yesterday.

Once again the spectre of politics and money is brought into sharp focus following the controversy surrounding the Taoiseach in the past week. It is fair to point out that there is genuine embarrassment on all sides about having to raise these matters but once they are in the public domain, the Opposition must ask questions and we will see the culmination of that in the other House later today.

I would, however, like to make a number of points about the controversy. The Irish people are sick and tired of hearing of these stories whereby senior politicians have taken money for whatever use they so choose. People will ask the probing questions over the next few days about whether the Taoiseach has any tax liability and there are questions that must be answered about ethics legislation and codes. The fundamental question people are asking is whether it is right that a senior politician should take such a significant sum of money for his own use.

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