The successful prosecution of former assistant Dublin city and county manager, George Redmond, has been welcomed by a range of politicians.The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, welcomed Redmond's conviction and congratulated gardaí on their investigation.
Labour's spokesman on the environment and local government, Mr Eamon Gilmore, said Redmond's conviction should now lead to the re-examination of other cases.
"For many years there has been a widespread assumption that it was virtually impossible to secure the conviction in the courts of a person charged with corruption.
"The conviction of Mr George Redmond in the Circuit Criminal Court today shows that it is possible to secure a conviction in these cases."
Mr Gilmore went on to say that confidence in public services, particularly in the planning services, is only possible if "anyone who is corrupt is brought to justice and dealt with by the courts".
He added: "I hope, against the background of this conviction, that the DPP will now look again at other cases that may have involved corrupt practices.
"Little appears to have happened as a result of the Flood report," he said, adding that "the response by Government on the day the Flood report was published was to announce the establishment of a new anti-corruption agency".
To date that agency has not been established. The controversy arising from the publication of the report died down, according to Mr Gilmore, and should now be reactivated.
The Green Party leader, Mr Trevor Sargent, said his party had brought forward legislation to "try and take that temptation away from the rezoning process so that local authorities have to own lands before they can be rezoned".
He said the profit from these lands should be returned to the local authorities for services in the community.
The Fine Gael spokesman on environment and local government, Mr Bernard Allen, said yesterday's decision was "a clear warning that a certain line cannot be crossed without the laws of the land being invoked".
Mr Allen said that he did not think the "public politic" has learned any lessons from yesterday's conviction of Redmond.
He added, however, that if the tribunals find people guilty of wrongdoing, and if people have behaved inappropriately and there are charges pursued by the DPP, then "you will see other convictions".