Susan O'Keeffe (Labour)

Much of that speech was about Fianna Fáil and its need to rebuild itself but I am not interested in that and I do not believe many members of the public are either.

What we should be interested in is what the Mahon report means. We cannot change what occurred in the past. We can only try to change our future based on that past. We can only do that if we remind ourselves of what happened and acknowledge it. First, I would like to acknowledge the work of those who wrote the final Mahon report and that of Judge Alan Mahon and his predecessor, Mr. Justice Flood. There has been much complaint about the length of time the tribunal took to conclude its business but today I would rather concentrate on what the report means to us and what we might take from it.

The Mahon report follows in the footsteps of the Moriarty, McCracken and beef tribunals and it tells another instalment of the rotten structure that by and large was put together by Fianna Fáil from its leaders, its taoisigh, through its Ministers, its TDs and its councillors. This report is about planning matters and the payments to influence planning decisions and I welcome the Minister of State's commitment to reviewing the recommendation for an independent planning regulator and the recent launch of Myplan.ie, among other suggestions she has made. The Mahon report is really about who we are, who we became and what was allowed to happen in the 1980s and 1990s. What was allowed to happen was the slow growth of corruption at the heart of Government and, as a consequence, at the heart of everything because nothing with rotten roots can ever survive and so the edifice has fallen around us. Ireland could never have survived or prospered under that kind of Government. No matter what they said or insisted, it was a kind of a mirage, a gaudy painting, a promise that the good times would come and belong to all of us. That was just a pack of lies. The Mahon report makes sure that we know that it was a pack of lies, that public representatives and their sidekicks were lining their pockets at our expense - people essentially stealing from us by bending and breaking the rules to have things their way. Those of us who tried to call a halt, who shouted "Stop" and who spoke out were variously ignored, laughed at, derided, bullied, sued, or, as in my case, charged, arrested and made to stand trial and also derided, bullied and sued.

Through these instalments of corruption - these various tribunals - three names stand out, three former Fianna Fáil taoisigh - Charles Haughey, Albert Reynolds and Bertie Ahern. They were certainly able men; they turned their skills and energy, however, against the State. They thought of themselves and their cronies first and they abandoned the principle of public representation and turned instead to private greed. They found ways to use their power and status to reap a financial reward at our expense, directly and indirectly, in the short and the long term. When one turns the pages of the Mahon report the one clear message that comes through is that public representatives sought corrupt payments. The developers were not queuing up to pay them originally but pay they did when they realised that they would be left behind and would lose out in the terrible race for profit that had developed. They saw that one had to be in with the crowd and so they did what one would expect - they rushed headlong for a piece of the action.

At the time this was happening I was working on the "World in Action" programme. It was late 1992. I had made the programme about corruption in the beef industry and the programme about abuse in the Catholic Church. I had started an investigation into Charles Haughey who was the Taoiseach at the time because a very significant UK property developer had come to me and told me that a man whom he was willing to identify, and did identify, had come unannounced to his office demanding money on behalf of Charles Haughey so that a tender that he had put in for a significant property development in Dublin would be looked upon favourably. The property developer alleged that the bagman had in fact requested the money for the Taoiseach's republican activities.

Corruption does indeed beget corruption and lies beget lies. When one has this kind of corruption at the very epicentre of government in the Taoiseach's office, it seeps out and spreads, and it did, and that was the damage and the rot. In the end it included bankers, accountants, solicitors, civil servants, lobbyists, PR people and consultants - all seeking a share of this lucrative cake facilitating the slush funds and the brown envelopes with offshore bank accounts, false money trails and hidden pyramids of false companies and false trails of ownership. They were then building a cosy cabal of business men - mostly, as opposed to women - bankers, developers, politicians and lobbyists, and they were delusional. Out loud, they preached the prosperity message, that Ireland was growing, that citizens were benefiting, that this was a new Ireland where everyone could do well. They were delusional too to the extent that they thought they would never be caught.

Those of us who tried to defy all of this were told, and I was repeatedly told, that for "the good of Ireland" I should stop. That has rankled with me for 20 years. So great was this corruption that these people were quite prepared to sacrifice the people, all of us and ultimately the truth, for their own gain, their own profit, and Ireland could "go hang". It was the greatest lie of all.

The Fianna Fáil Party did everything in its power to keep this illusion alive, as evidenced by the litany of lies for two decades. Judge Mahon uses imaginative variations to describe the evidence of former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, including terms such as "failed to disclose", "failed to account", "rejected evidence", "not provided with a truthful account" and that the tribunal "rejected his contention", "rejected his explanation" or that he "failed to truthfully account". Other phrases used in the report include "contrary to the position he maintained", "remains unexplained", "unable to determine the source" and "unable to pronounce as to its source". The report gives us a hint of what was going on. There were strange transactions with money from the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland, a safe in Drumcondra, bags of cash in hotel bedrooms and pubs, fund-raisers and whip-rounds and councillors queuing up breathlessly for some dirty money from a dirty bag man. Let me be clear, however; we have had only the merest glimpse of the truth and reality of this dirty money and these dirty deals. This was a banana republic, a mad place without rules and regulations and, ultimately, without decency, honour or honesty.

The Mahon tribunal's report is a turning point on the road towards growing up. We have had many turning points, for example, the beef tribunal, the report of which ultimately showed the lengths to which the authorities would go to try to keep the lid on the whole business. They called me the guilty party and claimed the bag and envelope culture was a figment of my imagination. The McCracken and Moriarty tribunals signalled clearly that the former Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, was completely corrupt and had friends in low places who were willing to play his game and be protected by him and his rotten cronies. Ultimately, nobody stood up to him.

We now have the Mahon tribunal's report naming and shaming the former Taoisigh, Albert Reynolds and Bertie Ahern, as well as Deputies and councillors who were methodically on the take because they could be. We have had so many turning points that we have become twisted and contorted and, ultimately, confused. The purpose of inquiry and investigation is to get to the truth and, ultimately, for all of us to see accountability. After spending millions of euro, investing hours of energy and time and putting to use some good brains, all we have are shreds of truth and an absence of accountability - at least not yet. It is no wonder people do not want to put their hands in their pockets again to bail out this country because they - in fact, we - were not the ones who corrupted it from the inside out. We have not walked away with fat pensions, big houses and cars or lavish lifestyles. There will not be a televised State funeral, after dinner speaking engagements, board memberships and lucrative globe trotting for us.

Having looked to the past for some years now, we know there is no truth and we will not obtain it either. There are too many faded memories and too much convenient amnesia. The paper shredders have rearranged the past and we must be satisfied with the shreds of truth we have been given to serve as an indicator of what took place. We must straighten up, turn to the future and look forward. Let us bring those who have lied and cheated to trial and make them stand where I stood, in other words, they should assume the label "accused" and be required to answer in a court of law. We must move on with a much greater appreciation that the rogues who can pull a fast one, love the con and bend the rules are no longer to be admired. They have ruined our country. Neither this nor any other parliament can legislate for honesty. What we must do is legislate for greater accountability. That is the rot that remains with us today. The onus is on us to build a better country and the reports of the Mahon and other tribunals must inform the future, even though they have provided us with only an incomplete picture of our past.