Taoiseach Enda Kenny has promised decisive action to sever the links between politics and business in order to restore public confidence in government.
Mr Kenny expressed regret at the manner in which Fine Gael handled a donation from businessman Denis O’Brien in the 1990s and said a decision to follow legal advice on the issue was wrong.
Welcoming the Moriarty tribunal report in the Dáil yesterday, Mr Kenny said it exonerated the members of the rainbow government in the 1990s from any wrongdoing in regard to the awarding of the mobile phone licence but it also found normal decision-making procedures were bypassed.
Mr Kenny said when the first issue regarding Mr Lowry’s conduct arose in 1996, Fine Gael acted immediately to remove him first from government, then from the party itself.
The Taoiseach said previous tribunals had elicited thousands of words but pitiful inaction, while the new Government had acted definitively and decisively by referring the report to the Garda Commissioner, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Revenue Commissioners.
He said the Cabinet had directed the relevant departments to provide a comprehensive report to the Government within four weeks on the report’s recommendations so appropriate action could be taken.
The Government was committed to the most comprehensive programme of political reform since the 1930s and had already kept the promise to reduce the salaries of Ministers and reform ministerial transport.
“We committed ourselves to introducing the necessary legal and constitutional provisions to ban corporate donations to political parties. We also committed ourselves to reducing the limits on donations to political parties and candidates and requiring disclosure of all aggregate sums above a limited threshold.
“We promised to introduce a statutory register of lobbyists, as well as a set of rules governing the practice of lobbying,” said Mr Kenny.
He outlined a range of other reforms, including whistleblower legislation and rules to ensure no minister or senior public servant can work in the private sector in any area involving a potential conflict of interest with their former area of public employment, until at least two years have elapsed.
The Taoiseach pointed to standards in Fianna Fáil, referring to “a culture of thanks very much big fella; walking-around money; whip-arounds; luck on the horses” and referred to “a taoiseach degrading our nation and this office by trousering after-dinner tips”.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said the report made it abundantly clear “the integrity” of the licence competition was “disgracefully compromised” and the State might yet be exposed to punitive compensation claims from losing consortiums.
Mr Martin attacked Fine Gael’s role in the granting of the licence and accused Mr Kenny of refusing to acknowledge what the report said about the fundraising activities that the party and its ministers participated in. The tribunal’s uncontested facts show there was a “targeted programme of financial donations to Fine Gael and engagement with Fine Gael politicians were a core part of the strategy of the same bidder”.
Mr Martin called on Michael Lowry to resign from the Dáil. “If he chooses not to do so we will propose a motion expressing the will of the Dáil on this matter,” he said, adding that he expected the co-operation of all other TDs for the motion.
Mr Lowry, who addressed the Dáil for an hour, said the tribunal had subjected him to a “show trial”.
“You can send in the Army, you can send in the Cab, there is no €900,000,” he said in reference to the report’s findings. Mr Lowry said no step was taken by him without full consultation with John Loughrey, then secretary general of the Department of Communications.
He said that when he telephoned Mr Loughrey “the other day”, he said he would recheck the file and notes on the matter. “And he came back and told me that everything that was done was in accordance with procedure,” Mr Lowry said.
The debate on the Moriarty report continues in the Dail today.
There will again be 30-minutes speaking slots back and forth across the House between Government and Opposition TDs. The debate is to commence with an address by Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte. Mr Lowry will be called upon to make a further 20-minute statement at about 5.20pm.
This will be followed by an hour in which Mr Rabbitte and Mr Kenny will field questions from the House.
