FINE GAEL leader Enda Kenny accused Fianna Fáil of separating private impropriety from public office, as the Opposition parties demanded Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea’s resignation.
Addressing the Taoiseach, Mr Kenny said: “It is precisely the same logic that we heard in this House from your predecessor when he applied it to his Manchester whiparound . . . despite the fact that I was minister for finance at the time, I was actually Bertie Ahern, private citizen, when I was handed 15 grand in a brown envelope.”
The Fine Gael leader said Mr Cowen’s response, and that of former minister for justice Brian Lenihan and current Minister Dermot Ahern, in defending Mr O’Dea, had made the matter worse. “The reason we are having this debate is that a Minister in your Government, who also happens to be a trained barrister, swore a false affidavit before the High Court and only corrected that when he was caught out in a tape,” he added. “It is not the case of a simple mistake.”
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said there should be no pretence that the matter was personal and that Mr O’Dea was acting as anything other than a TD and Government Minister. Everyone knew, he said, that Mr O’Dea was the face of the Government in Limerick and the entire midwest region.
Mr Gilmore added: “How can the people have confidence in a Cabinet Minister who has acted in this way? How can the people of Limerick have confidence in such a Minister who has also presided over record unemployment in the midwest region and the virtual collapse of the long-promoted Limerick regeneration? How can the people have confidence in a Government that defends the indefensible?”
His party, he said, wanted all the Government, including Mr O’Dea, out of office.
“That may have to wait until the Greens are eventually smoked out of the political bunker they are hiding in, or until someone on the back benches of Fianna Fáil finds a conscience,” he added.
“Otherwise, our unfortunate country will have much more to undergo if Fianna Fáil and the Greens are allowed to continue to the bitter end of their term of office.”
Sinn Féin’s Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said that even if one were to accept the Minister’s original affidavit to the High Court, which he admitted was false, Mr O’Dea would still have a very serious case to answer because of the false allegations published in the Limerick Chronicle, not to mention the even more serious charges that were not published but which he did utter and were recorded on tape. “This was totally inappropriate conduct for any member of the Oireachtas, let alone a Cabinet Minister,” he added.
He said he did not believe Mr O’Dea forgot he made the defamatory remarks. “I believe he has abused the democratic system and the courts, and should resign.”
