Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and thank her for contribution. I wish her well in her deliberations and in her portfolio. I was sorry at the circumstances surrounding the departure of her predecessor but Deputy Jan O'Sullivan is the ideal Minister of State for the Department at this time. If she keeps in mind the spirit of her original political mentor, the late Jim Kemmy, what she will do in the Department and for the Government will be valid. She will need to show courage and leadership to ensure that when all the speeches have been made, action will be taken. I wish her well in her efforts.

The Mahon report and the Moriarty report are twin products of a culture of greed and cronyism in Irish politics. When I came into the House, half way through the debate, my colleague, Senator Conway, was speaking about the need to fundamentally change Irish politics. Bad planning in Ireland stems from bad politics. At the core of politics in the State, since its foundation, is cronyism and "cute hoor" politics, as some have called it. In a political system where many politicians and sometimes entire political parties can virtually stand for nothing, they therefore cannot stand for anything. Where a person's worth is described by the media and commentators in terms of the number of votes secured at election time, rather than the value and quality of his or her ideas and convictions, the political system is not working. Whether it is the Mahon or Moriarty report or the state of the economy, it was almost inevitable that, since the State was formed, the political system would land us in this situation. Therefore, we need new politics. New politics is not as shallow as pronouncing that the Seanad should be abolished, it is a much bigger picture. Part of the new politics must be a new approach to fund raising.

The Minister of State mentioned the Government's deliberations on the Electoral (Amendment)(Political Donations) Bill 2011 on which we had a positive debate, having commenced in the Seanad, with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Phil Hogan, who indicated he was open to further thinking on the matter. That was some months ago. Since then and following publication of the Mahon report there is a need to reflect on the question of donations to politicians. During the debate I made the point that I thought the Minister had gone as far as he could and if we want to remove corporate donations and funding the taxpayer will have to pay. There are no marches by taxpayers saying they want to fund politics. It will be difficult to say to them that they must fund politics, even though they are doing so to a considerable extent. It may well be the case, arising from this and previous reports, that the link between business and politics by way of fund raising will have to be abolished.

I wish the Minister of State well in her deliberations on that issue. As part of her deliberations on the constitutional convention on politics itself, the electoral system which puts a premium on localism, clientelism and single issue politics rather than the bigger picture will have to be reviewed. We cannot rebuild the country and the type of government required with the current electoral system where virtually all Members of this and, particularly, the other House, spends most of their time looking over their shoulder at their constituency colleague, generally from their own party. That is not how one would run a company and it is not how one should run a country. All those issues which are central need to be addressed. The position has changed in recent months since the publication of the report and our reflection and recollection of other reports to the extent that the ideas expressed here on political donations some time ago are probably already out of date.

In politics we all live in glasshouses. No political party can claim to be above reproach. We can all improve and seek to do business and politics openly and transparently. We are duty bound to accept the reports of the tribunals. As they have cost a good deal of money and time, we must note and respond to what has been said and the information that has been ascertained. As the Leader of the House has pointed out, the various agencies of Government and State are deliberating on the findings. There is an expectation on the part of the public that there will be a reaction, legal and otherwise.

Senator Brennan gave a vivid account of how things can happen quickly in another jurisdiction. We need due process here. Those whose names have been listed and who have questions to answer must answer. There was a categorisation of difficulty which must be noted. The public expect strong action to be taken where corrupt practices took place. The tribunal report strongly pointed to a number of cases where such corruption has, apparently, happened. We await the outcome from the various legal investigations.

I wish the Minister of State and her Department well in their deliberations. The cleaning up and reform of politics is crucial. There must be absolute confidence in the political system and in every appointment, from a judge to State board appointees to peace commissioner to local dog catcher, that it is all above politics. For many generations the biggest party on this side of the House, Fine Gael, always saw itself as playing second fiddle and complained and looked on jealously at another party which appeared to get everything. Since we are the dominant party, perhaps there is a feeling that we should be the winners in all the contests. We must move beyond that thinking to a position where every appointment we make is above reproach. I do not care whether the appointee is Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, former Progressive Democrat or whatever. He or she must be the best person for the job. New thinking is what is required.