Dail Report:Taking money for personal use is wrong and "if it was wrong for Charles Haughey then it was wrong for Deputy Ahern", Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny told the Dáil.
Introducing a motion of no confidence in Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Mr Kenny said the scale of money he received for personal use "did not just come from two so-called whip rounds and an alleged dinner totalling £48,000 but rather a series of lodgements which come to €300,000 in today's terms".
He said: "The scale may well be different from that of [ former taoiseach] Mr Haughey, but scale does not alter standards. It may well have happened at a time of change for the Taoiseach. But circumstances do not alter standards."
In a strongly worded attack on the Taoiseach, the Fine Gael leader said Mr Ahern's explanations of lodgements to his accounts over two years "have been riddled with inconsistency and received with incredulity".
Mr Kenny said: "Nothing illustrates the bare-faced brazenness of the Taoiseach better than his repeated assurances to the Irish people delivered directly on TV or in this House that he has co-operated fully and freely with the Mahon tribunal".
He accused the Taoiseach of changing his stories on lodgements as the tribunal's investigations uncovered more and more hard facts. "His explanations for critical lodgements are completely at odds with evidence available in bank documents.
"His challenge to the tribunal's view that $45,000 was lodged has been blown away. He agrees that five sterling transactions were memorable events, yet he can remember no critical details. The Taoiseach's stories are threadbare, his evidence is invisible."
Mr Kenny insisted that "it is always wrong to accept private monies for private use while wielding public power and holding high public office.
"Because I believe that when you take up high public office, you do cross a moral threshold. Yes, you face the same problems, the same traumas as the next person, but unlike the next person, you have power given to you by the people. You hold high public office therefore a higher standard, a better standard, must apply."
He said: "I believe that as parliamentarians, we especially need to rehabilitate that word 'morality'. Because if we don't lay down the strong foundations of what is acceptable, desirable behaviour in our government, in our country, in our society, then who will?"
The motion of confidence debate in Taoiseach Bertie Ahern "is not just about the money that one man was given or why", Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said.
He said there was a great principle at stake - "the principle on which democratic governance in a free society is founded."
The people who founded the State understood this principle but "when that generation retired, a new and less savoury element entered Irish politics. The men in mohair suits contained within their ranks those who saw public life as a route to private gain.
"The great principles of civic republicanism where the republic is governed in the interests of all the people were eroded. The culture of public service was polluted by a culture of greed."
The Labour leader said: "I am not just referring to the people who we know took money. I am also referring to those who turned a blind eye. The Taoiseach himself enunciated the doctrine of the blind eye, when he spoke at the funeral of the late Deputy Haughey.
"His theory is that the normal standards do not apply to the special few. But the basis of a democracy is that there is no special few." Mr Gilmore questioned "why have so many senior Ministers who must know that the Taoiseach's account is not credible, continued to defend the indefensible". He criticised the PDs and hit out at the Green party.
"It would appear that the Greens have gone yellow. Where now are the fulminations of the Green Party deputies about corruption in Fianna Fáil, that we heard with such regularity in the last Dáil. Deputies Sargent and Gormley were particularly prone to exciting themselves on this issue."
It was "a source of deep regret" that the Green Party had "sold out so comprehensively and so quickly".
The Greens "are not the moral custodians of Fianna Fáil, or Fine Gael or the Labour party. We look after ourselves," said Minister for the Environment Minister John Gormley.
The Green Party was sharply criticised by the Opposition for its support of the Taoiseach in the motion of confidence debate, but Mr Gormley said that "unlike other parties and I include the parties opposite, we do not accept corporate donations.
"Unlike other parties . . . we have never accepted a single penny from a developer or a bank and I hope we never will. In fact I don't see a huge political difference between the main political parties on many policies and in particular on the question of donations."
Mr Gormley said Fine Gael did have a policy of not accepting corporate donations and that changed. Likewise Fine Gael and Labour said the tribunal should be allowed to carry out its work.
"But that attitude has changed as well, possibly because the election is over." He said the Greens had consistently said that "we will await the outcome of the tribunal."
Finian McGrath (Ind, Dublin North-Central) said that members of the Oireachtas should "not seek to predetermine the tribunal's report". Mr McGrath rejected some of the "politically opportunistic antics by some of the Opposition parties. It's not fair and it's not proper to make any decision until we all hear the facts."
Kathleen Lynch (Lab, Cork North Central) said "the facts are that this is not about the Taoiseach's personal life. No one mentioned the Taoiseach's personal life until he mentioned it himself. And to keep throwing that cloak around himself is unacceptable".
Criticising Mr McGrath, she said: "Finian can't continue to ride two horses. He can't be in Government and in the Opposition. Two horses, Finian, will do you serious damage."
Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (SF, Cavan-Monaghan) said Sinn Féin supported the Opposition motion because the Government had squandered the unprecedented wealth, particularly in relation to health. Mr Ó Caoláin did not comment directly on the personal donations to Mr Ahern but highlighted a range of policy areas, where he said the Government had failed the public.
81 to 76
The Government's motion, expressing confidence in Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, was passed by 81 votes to 76. FF, the Green Party and the PDs, as well as Independents Michael Lowry, Finian McGrath, and Jackie Healy-Rae, voted confidence in Mr Ahern. Fine Gael, Labour,Sinn Fein and Tony Gregory, Independent, Dublin Central, voted against the Government.