The relevance of politics has been strongly defended by the Labour Party leader.
Mr Ruairi Quinn said there was a new paradox in Irish politics. "At one level, the success of the political process has never been higher. On the other, the public standing of politicians has never been lower."
He added that the process of politics had produced the success of the Belfast Agreement after years of intolerance and violence. "The same political process has transformed this State from a narrow-minded, confessional State to an open pluralist republic, after years of suspicion and fear. And in the economic field, that same political process, through social partnership, has produced spectacular success after years of selfishness and adversarial industrial relations."
Yet, Mr Quinn added, the public representatives and their political parties, who had helped deliver such considerable progress, were being denounced as "mere politicians". This was a view which had preceded the revelations of the McCracken, Flood and Moriarty tribunals.
"The reality is that politics will not even begin to extract itself from this mire until that era is outed, however difficult that may be for some people, including the Taoiseach. Unlike some parties, Labour has always supported the work of tribunals. Others labour to set them up and then spend their time carping about the cost to undermine the findings before they are published."
Addressing the Labour Youth conference in Dublin on Saturday, Mr Quinn said the future of politics depended on the tribunals being allowed to do their work. And despite public and media indifference, the future of politics was important, he added.
"Because it is through the process of politics that we organise our lives, run our societies, amend and change our laws . . . There is simply no other way unless we abandon democracy for dictatorship."
The Dublin Labour MEP, Ms Bernie Malone, said that while the party had made mistakes, it had not been motivated by greed or personal gain. "Our mistakes in government, such as the tax amnesty of 1993, were bad decisions but not badly motivated decisions . . . "They did not bring the democratic system into disrepute as the recent changes in the Local Government Bill, allowing certain deputies retain their seats on local authorities, did. The inclusion of Kerry and Clare in the so-called regionalisation proposal is another example of cynical politics."
The party's candidate in the European elections in Leinster, Mr Sean Butler, wanted to challenge some myths about politics. "Politicians are not all the same. I have never met Charlie Haughey, for instance, never mind share a Cabinet with him . . . His values, his modus operandi and his party are not mine and I want no part of them."
