Mahon Tribunal - All parties must stamp out sleaze

After twice denying that Frank Dunlop had informed him in 1993 that the late Tom Hand, a Fine Gael councillor, had demanded £250,000 to support the Quarryvale development, it is extraordinary that former taoiseach John Bruton told the Mahon Tribunal yesterday that he now remembers that Frank Dunlop did indeed tell him.

Mr Bruton suggests that he must have felt there was nothing he could do about the information, as it was only hearsay evidence. Astonishingly, he did not even bother to question Mr Hand.

Mr Bruton told the tribunal that even though he did not remember Mr Hand’s name being mentioned, he was taken aback at the time by the allegation. Yet he did nothing about it.

This displayed an appalling lack of judgment and his dismissive remark that neither Fine Gael nor the world was populated by angels leaves him wide open to questions about whether he even cared that members of the party were engaged in corruption.

Spokespeople for Fine Gael have never been slow to criticise corruption within Fianna Fáil. If Mr Bruton had been told the same thing about a representative of any other party, would he have adopted such an indifferent attitude? It seems most unlikely in view of his combative record.

Such behaviour brings politics as a whole into disrepute. Just because people in different parties misbehaved is certainly not grounds for ignoring corruption. Rather, it emphasises the extensive nature of the sleaze and the need for a more rigorous approach by all parties to clean it up.

Mr Bruton resigned his seat in the Dáil to take up the appointment as EU ambassador to the United States. Regrettably his deplorable misjudgment in failing to act on the allegations made against Tom Hand brings both his judgment and his competence to act as ambassador seriously into question.