Taoiseach under fire - Tribunal puts FF credibility in question

AT the best of times, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s use of the English language can be perplexing.

But his statement to the Dáil yesterday included a Freudian slip of monumental proportions that will inevitably be greeted up and down the country by knowing smiles, nods and winks.

Challenged by Deputy Trevor Sergeant of the Green Party to say what he intended to do about revelations that two Oireachtas members failed to tell an internal party inquiry about money they received from developers, the Taoiseach replied: “I never condemn wrongdoing in any area.”

What cynics might regard as an accidental misleading of the Dáil was swiftly amended, however, at the prompting of alarmed backbenchers.

The Taoiseach explained that what he really meant to say was “condone... I never condone wrong doing”.

But it was too late. The damage was done. Unwittingly, the Taoiseach’s slip of the tongue stoked the embers of widely held perceptions that Fianna Fáil is soft on corruption.

It was reminiscent of Mr Ahern’s notorious declaration that he had “looked up every tree in North Dublin” but had found no evidence of wrongdoing by Ray Burke, then a Fianna Fáil TD. With eyes wide shut, Mr Ahern went on to appoint his close friend as Minister for Foreign Affairs. The rest is history.

Ex-minister Burke was subsequently forced to resign in disgrace following the scathing tribunal report which found he had taken bribes from developers involved in North County Dublin’s land rezoning scandal.

Now, from the same tribunal, we learn that Fianna Fáil Deputy GV Wright and Senator Don Lydon forgot all about donations of £5,000 and £7,000 which they had respectively received from Frank Dunlop, the disgraced ex-Government press officer and eminence grise of the long-running land rezoning scandal.

According to Mr Lydon, he forgot to tell the Fianna Fáil inquiry into payments to politicians about the £7,000 he received from Dublin landowner Christopher Jones in 1992.

Similarly, Mr Wright admitted giving incorrect information in the aftermath of Frank Dunlop’s allegations about corruption in 2000. Mr Wright told the inquiry he got a £500 donation from one of Mr Jones’s companies but the tribunal has established he also received a £5,000 donation in November 1992, plus £500 in 1977.

Mr Sergeant can be forgiven for wondering what the Taoiseach plans to do in light of these revelations. Pointedly, he asked if Mr Ahern condoned bribery, corruption and bad planning or whether he had “any standards worth talking about at all”.

Stung by these barbs, an angry Taoiseach reminded the Green party leader that the Government had set up tribunals to expose wrongdoing and snapped: “I’ll fill you in on that when you fill me in on your chemical shares.”

It was a revealing if unedifying parliamentary moment.

In a characteristic side-step, the Taoiseach said he did not intend detracting from the work of statutory tribunals by carrying out a parallel inquiry.

What this conveniently ignores is that the tribunals are investigating why payments were made to politicians - not why an internal inquiry, which precipitated the resignation of the late Deputy Liam Lawlor in 2000, was misled.

A jaundiced public has a right to know whether the Taoiseach will discipline the culprits. Ultimately, this is not about statutory powers - it is about ethics and transparency in politics.

There is no avoiding the political reality that the failure of two Oireachtas members to come clean at the internal inquiry has left Fianna Fáil with egg on its face and its credibility in question.