Bring charges over corruption, says Martin

EVIDENCE UNCOVERED by the Mahon tribunal and “independently available to the DPP is more than sufficient for a number of people to face serious charges”, according to Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin. He told the Dáil: “I hope that this will be progressed urgently.”

He also said “no credible explanation” had been given by anyone in Government why the independent, “expert and low-cost investigations” into planning decisions in six councils had been closed down and replaced with administrative reviews.

Speaking on the opening night of the three-day debate on the Mahon tribunal report, he said if the Government was “sincere in its response to the Mahon report then it will reinstate the independent planning investigations”.

During his speech, Mr Martin praised former taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s role in the peace process. He said it was a “real and enduring” achievement, “but it cannot absolve him”.

And he rounded on the Government parties, their fundraising practices and their response to the Moriarty tribunal report last year, claiming they had a strategy of “deliberately seeking to minimise” its significance.

Mr Martin said Ray Burke, Liam Cosgrave, Liam Lawlor and others had already been through the courts. People had to be “careful” what they said to prevent the collapse of cases. But there was “more than sufficient” evidence to prosecute a number of people on serious charges.

He said he accepted the findings about former EU commissioner Pádraig Flynn and they should be followed up by the appropriate authorities.

Referring to the £50,000 donation, he said “it should be received by the State through general proceedings against Mr Flynn” and he added “there is no excuse for the failure to confront Mr Flynn with this allegation at the time”. But he said the then Fine Gael leader refused to take any action when told one of his party had “sought a bribe of £250,000”.

He also highlighted the 15 donations to Fine Gael in the run-up to businessman Denis O’Brien’s Esat being awarded the mobile phone licence. Referring to comments in the Moriarty report as to why he gave out the money, Mr O’Brien had said “because Fine Gael asked for it”.

He added: “The then taoiseach and three Ministers in Cabinet today received donations in their constituencies which were solicited from Esat ... To this day the Government has not said if it agrees with the findings” and the Taoiseach had “repeatedly refused to answer” whether it was “correct to seek and accept these donations”.

Hitting out at the other parties, he said that funding of Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore’s former party was “less than transparent given the involvement in counterfeiting”. If he believed in transparency, it was now time this was investigated.

He described Sinn Féin’s “embrace of double standards” as “particularly brazen”. During the period investigated by Mahon, “Sinn Féin’s movement killed more than 200 people, kneecapped and exiled many more and ran this island’s largest racketeering, kidnapping and bank-robbing network”.

Referring to Mr Ahern, he said at no stage had anyone “made any allegation about any corrupt act by Bertie Ahern during any of his three governments”. He said the “findings against him are serious enough without people trying to invent others or extend them so they can make partisan points”. He said nobody elected to the House in the last 20 years “could have achieved what he did in the peace process”.

Mr Martin also said nothing was alleged by the opposition about Mr Ahern during debates on the original or amended terms of reference for the tribunal. He highlighted comments by Ruairí Quinn when he was a cabinet colleague of Mr Ahern’s and how he was “shocked” by what had emerged.