A new citizens' initiative to fight corruption was launched at weekend meetings in Dublin and Galway. More than 160 people attended the two meetings, which were held with the aim of making politicians and public servants more accountable.
The inaugural meeting in Dublin heard calls for the setting up of a permanent commission to investigate corruption and the removal from county councillors of the power to rezone land.
Mr Colm Mac Eochaidh, a barrister and planning activist, said the commission would have the technical skills necessary to carry out complex investigations. Unlike the tribunals, it would work in private; this was because it was difficult to address allegations in public without damaging the good name of those involved.
Mr Mac Eochaidh said the Government would like to believe that corruption was "a part of the past and had nothing to do with them". But this "wasn't good enough" and he hoped the Irish people would look for "better answers" in the next general election.
He criticised the Taoiseach for "standing over the appointment of Ray Burke in the full knowledge that he took £30,000" when Mr Ahern had said he had been "up every tree in north Dublin" and found no evidence of a payment.
Mr Mac Eochaidh said Fianna Fail was "a formerly great party" which had been "taken over" by people whose agenda had little in common with the public interest. "The public interest has become the back-seat passenger of Irish politics and people have been turned off by it."
In 1995, Mr Mac Eochaidh and a colleague offered a £10,000 reward for information on planning corruption, which led to the establishment of the Flood tribunal. Last year, his name was linked to the setting up of a new political party.
Because the system of rezoning could not be guaranteed to operate in the public interest, this power should be removed from local authorities and given to a national land use commission, Mr Mac Eochaidh told the Dublin meeting.
Existing legislation against corruption, dating from Victorian and Edwardian times, was "virtually useless". He doubted any convictions would be secured against people who featured in the tribunal.
Mr Gerard McHugh, who organised the meeting, called for "action, not words" by the Government to fight against corruption.
