James Heffernan (Labour)

I add my voice to the calls for a debate on the Mahon tribunal. There has been much talk about it today and many Members from both sides of the House have expressed abhorrence at what the tribunal reported and found. Every day when one walks through the corridors of power, one becomes very aware of the ghosts of those who have gone before one and of those voices which are still around. Every day I walk past a gallery of portraits of our past Taoisigh. The position of Taoiseach is a very privileged one to occupy. I see school tours, elderly people, young children and others walking past these portraits and being told about these great men.

Is it still appropriate that the portraits of people who have been found culpable of corruption, abuse of power and of privilege and perjury hang in Leinster House? Perhaps the time has come for a clean out of those portraits and that we start a new brand of politics and show our young people and young people who become involved in politics proper role models. I became involved in politics because I admired different politicians who had gone before me but now these people have stained political life in Ireland and it is time they were wiped from our memory.