There are certain matters that the Flood and Moriarty tribunals should consider before winding up their inquiries, and if their terms of reference will not permit such additional inquiries, the terms of reference should be changed.
But first, a light-hearted diversion. Seamus Brennan is the junior Minister responsible for baby-sitting Jackie Healy-Rae; so vital a role that when David Andrews left the Cabinet, Bertie Ahern said the reason he was not appointing Seamus Brennan to more senior office was that he was so good at baby-sitting. Bertie did not mention that he was put off by the crude piece of self-promotion by Brennan during the weekend before the Cabinet reshuffle.
Brennan was a member of Dublin County Council from 1985 until his appointment as junior minister for something when Fianna Fail returned to office in March 1987. During the period from the local government elections in 1985 to March 1987, Brennan would not have had a lot to do.
From 1985 to 1987 Brennan was either a humdrum backbencher or frontbencher, with lots of time on his hands to play a humdrum role on Dublin County Council. But apparently he did not rise even to such a role.
He told the Fianna Fail inquiry team that from 1985 to 1987 he had attended "very few" council meetings and had "no involvement with any significant rezoning proposals". The reason he offered for this inactivity was that he found himself in conflict with the party leader.
Imagine that - he was unable to attend Dublin County Council meetings for two years because he was having a row with Charlie Haughey. But what conflict was he engaged in with Charlie Haughey during that period? Des O'Malley had been expelled from Fianna Fail in May 1984, so what conflict was there from then until 1987 that so preoccupied Seamus Brennan?
There was another interesting aside in the very brief paragraph about him. It was that "for the 1987 general election his election committee would have sourced donations for his campaign", the clear implication being that he personally did not do so. Is this true? Is it true that Seamus Brennan got no money for the 1987 general election campaign other than donations sourced by his election committee? Perhaps he would like to answer these questions before the next general election.
NOW to three weightier matters that the tribunals might inquire into before they conclude, none of which has anything to do with Seamus Brennan.
First, during the period from 1987 to 1989, spectacular favours were done for the Goodman group. A straightforward favour to the value of over £20 million was done for the group in the provision of State-backed export credit insurance cover for the export of beef to Iraq.
Almost no benefit accrued to the State from that massive favour because virtually all of the beef exported under this scheme was taken from intervention stocks.
Therefore, the question arises as to why the favour was done. Liam Hamilton in the tribunal report dismissed the idea that this could have had anything to do with political donations. That it could have had to do with personal donations did not enter his head, apparently. There was no investigation of the bank accounts of the relevant parties, no following of the paper trails that has been undertaken by the McCracken, Moriarty and Flood tribunals.
Larry Goodman has insisted repeatedly that he gave no money to politicians but only to political parties. While, of course, one must respect his assertion, nevertheless it would be reassuring if the Moriarty tribunal confirmed the veracity of that assertion. It might also be worth looking at whether any personal or political donations were made by any other beef exporters.
The second matter concerns Fianna Fail money. Sean Fleming, the Fianna Fail TD for Laois-Offaly and former finance director of the party, and Paul Kavanagh, the former party fund-raiser, might be helpful in determining whether significant amounts of money intended for the party were diverted to the personal campaigns of individual politicians and/or the personal bank accounts of individual politicians.
It's well known in political circles that there were several rows within Fianna Fail during the 1987 and 1989 election campaigns over money given to politicians and that one politician diverted hundreds of thousands of pounds from the party to his personal use. That should be uncovered.
The third matter concerns Fine Gael.
It was blindingly obvious that there was something fishy about Charlie Haughey's financial affairs for years. So, too, it is blindingly obvious that there was something fishy about Fine Gael's financial affairs during the period of its brief return to government from December 1994 to June 1997. The party was bankrupt in November 1994 and was flush with money a year later.
Obviously, rich persons and rich corporations who would not support the party when in opposition became suddenly flaithiulach when the party returned to government in late 1994. Why was this, what did they get in return for their generosity and who were they?
There should be a full inquiry into this, too, including a paper-trail inquiry, and an examination of what correlation, if any, there was between donations received by Fine Gael during that period and favours done.
Michael Lowry was then the party fundraiser and clearly knows more about this than most. For so long as he was ostracised from the party there was the possibility that he would tell all he knew. Could the signal last week from John Bruton that Lowry would be welcome back into the party be connected to apprehensions about what Lowry might say if he remained alienated? Or was it just another by-election stunt?
Or both?
vbrowne@irish-times.ie