Madam, – I dare say Lucinda Creighton is right about who Fine Gael accepts money from and is right that Fine Gael should return any money it receives from developers (Home News, July 21st).
However, rightly or wrongly, Fine Gael is obliged to play by the rules of the game as they are now until it returns to government and can change them.
In the meantime, if Ms Creighton is so concerned by “cute hoor” politics, no one is stopping her from leading from the front and setting an example for her Fine Gael colleagues by publishing the actual receipts she used when compiling her expenses.
She might also provide a proper audited account of how she funded her election campaign and funds the constituency organisation of Fine Gael in Dublin South East.
How many times have we heard Oireachtas members defend the indefensible in the same way Enda Kenny defended Fine Gael taking corporate donations, using such weasel words as “we broke no rules and did nothing wrong”.
At the same time, Mr Kenny made the astounding claim that Fine Gael is beholden to no-one, which is of course a patent nonsense because no one makes a corporate donation to an Irish political party without expecting something in return. We know Irish politics doesn’t operate on that basis, otherwise we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in now.
If Fine Gael really does have nothing to hide then why doesn’t it publish proper accounts of how it is funded and its expenses (to the cent) and in particular, how it cleared its substantial debts and raised nearly €2 million between 1994 and 1997?
At the moment, not one single member of the Oireachtas, from any party or none, publishes the actual receipts to prove the amounts they claim were incurred, and we’re expected to believe Enda Kenny is going to tackle the massively powerful vested interests in the public and private sector who have so much to lose by any reform, when he can’t even make his own party colleagues publish receipts for their expenses, the way MPs in Westminster have to. – Yours, etc,