In his article in The Irish Times this week, Deputy Phil Hogan, the chairman of the Fine Gael parliamentary party, sought to make a series of statements about Fianna Fail's attitude to the Dunnes payments tribunal. The flimsy pretext for Mr Hogan making his usual political charges was a claim that Fianna Fail's attitude to the Dunnes payments tribunal was to put its head down and say nothing.

If Mr Hogan believes that a political party can do that and not respond to matters of major public importance, then it is little wonder that his party went out of government. It would also seem to indicate that Mr Hogan has little faith in journalists who have a duty to put questions about current matters to politicians. They have done this on a regular basis and the responses have been reported.

Perhaps the chairman of the Fine Gael parliamentary party has not yet fully settled into Opposition and that is why he has missed the discussion in the Dail last week and the subsequent reports of the proceedings in the national newspapers. Or is it, as seems more likely, that Mr Hogan is simply making mischief?

To refresh Mr Hogan's memory, let me remind him that, at the Fianna Fail Ardfheis many months ago, Mr Bertie Ahern set out clearly that the privilege of holding high office brings with it the responsibility of observing high standards. He said he would not excuse any violation of the public trust.

Mr Ahern has also made clear he will support the establishment of another tribunal if that is what is found to be necessary. But despite him saying this, Mr Hogan and others choose to ignore the Taoiseach's remarks and imply that Fianna Fail has not realised the enormity of the revelations and is keeping its head down.

These people have also ignored the fact that the first tribunal has not yet reported and that it would be inappropriate for any politician to be pre-empting the outcome of a judicial tribunal that is still sitting. If the Taoiseach took the route suggested by the leader of the Opposition, Mr Bruton, on a recent radio programme, which was basically to impinge on the work of the tribunal, Fine Gael would be the first to point out about the separation of powers.

Fine Gael have already jumped the gun once on the issue when they put forward a rash motion to widen the terms of reference of the current tribunal. That motion had to be withdrawn when the chairman of the tribunal said it was not on.

It is interesting that Mr Hogan's intervention comes now. The chairman of the Fine Gael parliamentary party was uncharacteristically silent when the revelations about Mr Michael Lowry first emerged. The same 20/20 hindsight that Fianna Fail is supposed to have did not apply to Fine Gael or its partners then in government.

DID any of Mr Lowry's Cabinet colleagues cry foul when the former Minister alleged cosy cartels in the semi-state sector and that he was being spied upon? None of his decisions in government was questioned by his colleagues - in fact quite the opposite, with his successor, Mr Dukes, saying he wasn't going to "unpick" any decision made by Mr Lowry.

Or have members of Fine Gael wondered why the party was so slow to give responses in relation to the funds given to it by Mr Ben Dunne?

Why did the party wait until midnight one night to reveal about donations? What has happened to the party's fundraising records, especially prior to 1987, and given that five Fine Gael ministerial Mercedes had to go to Dublin Castle during the Dunnes payments tribunal, could any decision have been made while Fine Gael was in government, maybe on tax or some other matter, that would have benefited the Dunne family?

Mr Hogan raised questions about the values of others in government. He conveniently omitted his own indiscretions, such as the early release of Budget details by his office, which lead to his resignation as Minister of State for Finance.

Mr Hogan has also featured at the current tribunal because the Fine Gael chairman had arranged for the developer of a Dunnes Stores project in Mullingar to speak to Mr Lowry about the opposition of Fine Gael councillors in Westmeath to the development.

No doubt Mr Hogan will say these are all political charges but there was no substance to his article except to attack anyone who made any suggestion about Fine Gael.