In the aftermath of the Mahon Report our politicians are still seeking to blame the wrong people for their failings.

HOW can we be expected to believe Micheál Martin can root out corruption in the Fianna Fáil party when he can’t even identify the ministers who, according to the Mahon Report, launched a “sustained and virulent attack” on the tribunal and questioned “the legality of its inquiries as well as the integrity of its members” when it was investigating Bertie Ahern in 2007 and 2008?

Fianna Fáil has not yet received any formal notification of Bertie Ahern's intention to leave the party.

MICHEÁL MARTIN is forging a new way forward for his party, but embers of old still burn from a few short years ago when he and others rushed forward to attack the Mahon Tribunal for its enquiries into Bertie Ahern’s mysterious £215,000.

The reaction to the seismic Mahon Report focussed on the villains of the piece — Ahern, Flynn, Lawlor, Burke and O’Callaghan — and their supporting cast.

The late Fianna Fáil TD Liam Lawlor had an “insatiable appetite for money”, and his methods of obtaining it from developers was “occasionally ingenious”, according to the Mahon Report.

Enda Kenny has insisted that Fine Gael was “100%” compliant with the law when paying him a top-up to his Dáil salary from public monies.