It’s only right for FF to ditch the pretence of representing the people
Seán Lemass had insisted on the inclusion of "Republican Party," because he feared that people might confuse the Irish word fáil, meaning destiny, the English word "fail."
If Fianna Fáil did drop off The Republican Party from its official name, as reported last weekend, it would be one of the more honourable things that it has done in recent years. For the past two general elections, instead of behaving in a true republican way in seeking to represent the people, it has deliberately deceived them.
In 1997 the party ran on a platform of zero tolerance, which it abandoned as soon as it got in power.
Then in 2002 it promised that no budget cuts were planned "secret or otherwise," even though cuts had already been secretly ordered. When the deliberate deception was exposed, the party response was not to come clean, but the lie further and to amend the Freedom of Information Act, which had been used to obtain documentary proof of their lying. The message that this government has been sending by its cynical behaviour is that it is all right to lie and cheat and that it really does not matter if you get caught, but try to cover up anyway.
Various people have testified that political contributions that they gave to Charlie Haughey, Pádraig Flynn and Ray Burke ended up in their personal accounts.
Under its current leadership, Fianna Fáil apparently does not care. It has never bothered to ask those people for the money. Why?
Of course, it was Bertie Ahern who facilitated Charlie Haughey when he was diverting money from the party leader's account into his own bank account. Bertie facilitated him by supplying the necessary second signature on the cheques transferring the money. And he, with his accountancy background, did so without question.
There was a time when Fianna Fáil believed it was important that all members of the government should be seen to be above suspicion.
Remember Dr Ward? Not the one connected with Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, but Dr Conn Ward, who was parliamentary secretary in the de Valera governments from 1932 to 1946. He was also the managing director of the Monaghan Curing Company, and he owned a 62.5% share of that company.
Anticipating his promotion to cabinet which would necessitate his withdrawal from the directorship of the company, Dr Ward planned to have his son take over as manager and managing director. To make room for him the existing manager John MacCarvill, who was being paid the princely sum of £5 a week was dismissed. The only reason he was given for his dismissal was that it was "in the best interests of the shareholders."
Dr Patrick MacCarvill, a brother of the dismissed manager and a Fianna Fáil deputy, made a formal complaint to de Valera on May 22, 1946.
He protested about his brother's treatment and backed up his allegations of avaricious behaviour by accusing Ward of taking kickbacks from the salaries of a couple of temporary medical officers who were deputising for him while he was a Dáil deputy. There was also a further allegation that Dr Ward had organised bacon sales that were not going through the company's books.
As de Valera was reading MacCarvill's letter to the Dáil, James Dillon protested repeatedly. "What has Dáil Éireann got to do with the private activities of Dr Ward or the management of his business?" he asked.
"Is there anything in all these documents relating to Dr Ward's conduct as a deputy of Dáil Éireann?" Dillon interrupted again. "I think so," De Valera replied. "I am particularly interested as head of the government in the aspect of that matter which casts any reflection upon Dr Ward or upon his conduct as parliamentary secretary." In short, anything that Ward did while he was a junior minister reflected on the government.
The Taoiseach had already forwarded the correspondence to Dr Ward, who responded with a couple of letters of his own on June 4. De Valera read both of them into the record. Ward initially replied that he would be initiating legal action for "malicious libel," but it would take "some time" for him to examine the company records.
DE VALERA was not impressed. So Ward made a virtue of necessity. He sent a follow-up letter asking "that the whole matter be made the subject of a judicial inquiry with the least possible delay."
There was no delay. Next day the Taoiseach got the Dáil to authorise a judicial inquiry, and Dr Ward was relieved of his responsibilities as parliamentary secretary.
"It would not be right that we should keep the position in suspense until long-protracted actions in the courts which might result from libel actions or anything of the sort had been completed," de Valera explained.
The tribunal convened less than three weeks later, sat for nine days, and published its report exactly 31 days after the Dáil's decision to set up the inquiry. It exonerated Ward of the major charges by concluding that he acted "in what he considered to be the best interests of the company" in dismissing John MacCarvill. But it found that the factory had engaged in some under-the-counter trading, thereby evading taxes, and that certain sales had not been reported to the Pigs and Bacon Commission, as required by law.
Ward was cast adrift politically, and de Valera made no effort to defend him.
These days, however, Fianna Fáil is practically paralysed when it comes to taking a stand in such matters, because it lacks the moral authority for leadership. Any tribunal appointed now it's more likely to take nine years than nine days.
The Ward controversy began over a £5 a week job in 1946, but this week we are talking about €15 million in relation to developments at Punchestown. The Fianna Fáil politicians are blaming the civil servants in the departments of Agriculture and Finance, and the opposition politicians are blaming the two ministers.
In the opinion of the Comptroller and Auditor General, the civil servants clearly did not do their prescribed job. If this was the case, they should be fired because of the sums of money involved. If the civil servants were cutting corners to facilitate the ministers, the ministers should go too.
Of course, that is not going to happen. Mary Harney has already told the Dáil that it is not a resigning issue. The PDs' pledge to keep Fianna Fáil honest is as worthless as a Fianna Fáil promise.
Should anybody be surprised? The PDs were founded to keep Charlie Haughey out of power, but the first chance they got, they propped him up. One has only to read the daily accounts of the tribunals to see the consequences.
De Valera cast Ward adrift, but Bertie and company have abandoned government responsibility. A lack of accountability has been institutionalised. And if we put up with this, we should be institutionalised too!
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