Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

I have said so repeatedly. Human frailty was as much a factor as those who believed they could get away with it. They accepted the money. I am only making the point that because of the environment in which developers were operating, they gave money to everybody. They were sloshing money around like snuff at a wake and it was being accepted across the board. At the time and subsequently several politicians and parties claimed that in the environment of the time they had accepted them as they believed they were genuine, legitimate political payments.

This leads us to the recommendations the tribunal has made. With my party, I wholeheartedly support its recommendations and hope the Government will start to enact them in so far as it is possible to do so because there are constitutional requirements to be met in some instances. The only way we can prevent it from happening again on the scale at which it happened - even the tribunal has stated it will never be possible to stamp out corruption entirely - is by passing the laws required under the recommendations. Fianna Fáil unequivocally and unambiguously accepts the recommendations of the tribunal and totally condemns those who have been found to have received corrupt payments. They have brought shame not just on the country but also on the party.