The Minister for Agriculture and Food has demonstrated the accuracy of Deputy De Rossa's description of him yesterday when he said that in a mediocre Cabinet he is head and shoulders below the rest.
Yesterday the Taoiseach, Deputy Charles Haughey, during the weakest, least convincing, most evasive and ambivalent speech I have heard him make in the House decided to single me out for a vicious personal attack and to ascribe to The Workers' Party the orchestration of the campaign of scandals that now besets his Coalition Government. The Taoiseach's bizarre reasoning was followed by the spectacle of his political bully boy, the Minister for Justice, Deputy Ray Burke, trawling a BBC television programme to find a convenient peg on which to hang an old list of allegations against The Workers' Party. It would appear that the Government have decided that by digging up what they claim as The Workers' Party past we will be intimidated from exposing Fianna Fáil's present. The tactics used for so long by the Taoiseach, Deputy Haughey, to silence his own backbenchers will not silence members of this party.
The Taoiseach said yesterday:
Deputy Rabbitte has played a leading role in the more pernicious aspects of the campaign. He has been the RTE anchorman appearing daily with some new false allegation or innuendo.
I challenge the Taoiseach to enumerate these so-called false allegations or innuendo. I stand over every comment I have made during this political crisis. If I had time I would repeat every question I have posed because the Taoiseach has left the important questions unanswered.
Indeed, I intend to pose a few questions to the Taoiseach and his Government today. Of course, the Taoiseach does not really believe that I have been making false allegations. As Deputy Michael D. Higgins pointed out in an important contribution yesterday, the real message is in the sub-text. The Taoiseach is really saying to RTE — get Deputy Rabbitte off the airwaves because I do not like what he is saying. Not for the first time his colourful Man Friday, the Government press secretary, will no doubt communicate his master's wishes even more directly to RTE management. This is the ugly authoritarian face of intolerance described so graphically by his own courageous backbencher, Deputy Seán Power.
The Taoiseach went on to say that my political agenda "seems to be one of furtive phone calls, clandestine meetings with some disaffected, disloyal employees, passing over stolen documents". How does the Taoiseach, Deputy Haughey, know about my "furtive phone calls"? Is it a case of the leopard not being able to change his spots? Are some of his old friends back to their old ways, listening in to private phone calls? If the Taoiseach is getting an accurate transcript he must know that even in the golden circle in which he moves, the public spirited people who have spoken to me over recent weeks can hardly be described as disaffected employees. Many of them are business people who are sickened by the manner in which normal business and commerce have been distorted by political favouritism. It is more revealing that the Taoiseach's kitchen cabinet should consider such public spirited people to be disloyal. Disloyal to whom? Disloyal to the public interests, to the taxpayer, to the image and reputation and future of our country, or disloyal to the small elite who have made huge fortunes from inside knowledge and boast in the better restaurants of their off-shore mechanisms to avoid tax? Is the Taoiseach saying that he would prefer to leave public life — as he is now surely destined to do — keeping this information swept under the kind of carpets that his charming Man Friday will hopefully soon revert to selling?
The Taoiseach complained that I had put down a series of questions to him demanding to know if he has had meetings with various different people. He seemed entirely unconscious of the irony that all my questions have been transferred to one or other Minister, which defeats the very purpose of these questions. In any event at the rate the various Ministers are steering clear of any questions that lead to the Taoiseach's door, there is no prospect of answers.
The Taoiseach's speech yesterday does nothing to allay the public disgust that is so manifest about the operation of a golden circle where some elements of business and some elements in politics are hand in glove. It is all a pernicious rumour orchestrated by The Workers' Party, according to the Taoiseach's creative scriptwriters. "I was not involved in the Carysfort deal," he tells the House, and then adds: "I gave it my full support". What precisely does this mean? Who is the more grateful to the Taoiseach for his "full support"— the taxpayer or Pino Harris? The taxpayer must welcome the opportunity to learn about "mezzanine finance", "positive tax opinions" and how to make investments without really knowing them in the new Smurfit business school. The Taoiseach noted:
In the last few days we have much play being made of what was on the face of it an extraordinary letter written by Mr. Desmond to the Chairman of Pernod-Ricard. The claims it seemed to make are patently absurd.
It is gratifying from a man who apparently never admits anything that the Taoiseach agrees that the letter is "extraordinary" but on what basis can he conclude in his next sentence that "the claims it seemed to make are patently absurd"? How can the Taoiseach tell this House with a straight face that if there was any impropriety it would have become evident in the court proceedings? The court reached its findings on the facts before it and since Mr. Desmond's letter was not before the court, nobody can say what the court would have found.
The Taoiseach avoids the earlier confusion about whether he considers Mr. Desmond a "personal" or a "business" friend and chooses to put on the record of the House his full support for what he describes as "a great national enterprise involving thousands of fine people who were up-front, open and above board". This reference to the Whitbread Round the World yacht race is a curious insertion in the Taoiseach's speech. Nobody asked the Taoiseach to make any "apologies for fully supporting it". However, since he raises the matter and since he is so adamant on his lack of contact with the commercial State companies, may I ask him to tell the House what precisely his full support for this great "national enterprise" entailed? Did he bring pressure to bear, or have representations been made on his behalf to the State companies to support this "great national enterprise"? In particular I invite the Taoiseach to deny that he personally canvassed Irish Life for a donation of £100,000 to this proud endeavour.
Continuing what the Taoiseach and his Ministers would have us believe is the doctrine of separation of State from semi-States, I would like to ask the Taoiseach to reconcile the statement by Mr. Smurfit that he was requested to bring in consultants to prepare Telecom Éireann for privatisation with the Government's own statement that no such request had been made. I put it to the Taoiseach now that Mr. Smurfit indicated that he was prepared to take a further term as chairman of Telecom Éireann only if he could be assured that the company would be privatised. The Taoiseach, Deputy Haughey, personally, at the same time that he was telling the Congress of Trade Unions the exact opposite, assured Mr. Smurfit that that authorisation would be forthcoming. Hence Mr. Smurfit's action in getting on with the job and Mr. Brennan's inability to disclaim Government involvement. Mr. Smurfit's personal interest in the design of a new headquarters for Telecom in Ballsbridge was not because of any short term profits that might accrue with or without his knowledge to any of his investment companies but because of his intention to take a significant and a controlling interest in a privatised Telecom.
Before publication of the Desmond/ Pernod Ricard letter by Deputy De Rossa, the single most disturbing allegation of an extraordinary series of allegations was the revelation by Deputy Bruton that sensitive financial data secured in confidence about the commercial affairs of a subsidiary of Aer Lingus was transmitted to a rival company in the private sector of which the Taoiseach's son is a principal. The Taoiseach made no reference to this matter which has so disturbed so many of his own backbenchers. He has transferred my questions on the matter to the Minister for Communications, Deputy Séamus Brennan, who has distinguished himself so far in this controversy by managing to avoid what he believes is the truth of what happened.
May I now put it to the Taoiseach that no postal misdelivery every occurred? May I put it to him that the financial and related data spoken about by Deputy Bruton did indeed actually reach Celtic Helicopters, and may I ask him to explain to the House why we are now getting a different version of events from that given to the Aer Lingus board at the time? Can I invite him to explain to the House the significance of last week's Sunday Business Post front page story that the principal in the company, Mr. Ciaran Haughey, was at the time a consultant for Ryanair?
I had also hoped to have time to ask the Taoiseach in some detail about the summons he issued to Mr. Bernie Cahill in the summer of 1990 to visit his island retreat to instruct him there to discontinue the services of Goodbody's stockbrokers in favour of Mr. Desmond's NCB for the upcoming flotation of Irish Sugar.
The Taoiseach insinuated yesterday that I and Deputy De Rossa met with the Chief of Staff of the IRA apparently to secure information to discredit the Government. It is a base lie and the Taoiseach, Deputy Haughey and his bullyboy Minister for Justice know it is a lie. It is a lie that stands excised from the record of the House but was widely broadcast since.
I share the same county and similar humble origins with the Taoiseach, but other than that there is more than a generation dividing us. The Taoiseach has carved out a number of distinctions which have so far eluded me. I have missed out on the great wealth that has somehow fallen into his lap during his time in public life. His career has also been marked by the distinction of having been charged with the illegal importation of arms. That is not a distinction that I covet. Last night in an outrageous attempt to divert attention, the Minister for Justice, Deputy Ray Burke, sought to rely on the contents of a television programme against which libel actions have been initiated and in respect of which the principal source of allegations against The Workers' Party has since been remanded and charged with conspiracy to murder members of the security forces in the name of the provisional movement. These facts did not suit the purposes of the Minister in his frenzied scavenging to intimidate The Workers' Party Deputies.
There is no secret about the origins of The Workers' Party. One dimension of our history is rooted in the militant nationalist tradition. More than 20 years ago our antecedents recognised the futility of physical force. The progenitors of The Workers' Party did make mistakes in the circumstances then prevailing in Northern Ireland, and what seems to be upsetting Minister Burke and some of his backwoodsmen is that these mistakes have been acknowledged by The Workers' Party and that we have left behind the blind alley of militant nationalism and entered the arena of democratic politics. Unlike Fianna Fáil which has its own origins, The Workers' Party Deputies did not enter this House with revolvers in their pockets. Of course it would suit the purposes of Fianna Fáil if The Workers' Party supporters were still painting letter boxes green or shooting at members of the security forces rather than making such a political nuisance of themselves in this House. The viciousness and sheer malice of the attacks on the Workers' Party by the Taoiseach, Deputy Haughey and Minister Burke must be some kind of barometer of the impact we are making on this Government. Neither the Taoiseach nor the Minister likes being pursued for answers and I can scarcely think of two Members in this House less suited to engaging in a witch-hunt against anyone.
What can the House expect from a Minister for Justice whose previous role has been in his own words, to act as the protector, enforcer and provider of and for the speculators? With unconscious irony he tells the House that he has initiated the first comprehensive review in recent years of the Garda Fraud Squad. Minister Burke is uniquely qualified to know how badly such a review is needed in the fraud squad. He has an extent of personal experience of the fraud squad which none of his predecessors can claim. Having secured his auctioneer's licence almost contemporaneous with his election to Dublin County Council, Minister Burke's subsequent activities are to some extent a matter of public record and eventually became the subject of a fraud squad investigation. One wonders if the country would have been so fortunate in its Minister for Justice if the system of appointment in the US, for example, of Senate hearings for senior Government appointments applied. The prospect of being able to question the Minister, for example, on the contents of Frank McDonald's book Saving the City is certainly an appealing one. In the book Frank McDonald stated about Deputy Burke:
As an auctioneer he was an agent for the hundreds of houses they built in the Swords area. As a councillor he tabled motions to have agricultural land which they had bought rezoned for development, immeasurably increasing its value. An extract from one of the Brennan and McGowan companies published by the newspapers showed that he received the sum of £15,000 in fees under the heading "planning" in relation to the sale of 35 acres of newly zoned industrial land at Montgorry near Swords. Another Brennan and McGowan company built his house, "Briargate" on its own grounds off the Malahide Road. It was designed by the group's principal architect, John P. Keenan, who was later appointed as a member of An Bord Pleanála by Mr. Burke on his last day in Office as Minister for the Environment in June 1981. Mr. Burke insisted that there was no connection between the motion he seconded to rezone the Montgorry lands for industry and the £15,000 payment. He told the Sunday Independent that the sale of the land to which the payment was linked had not gone through.
I happen to have got a copy of the Sunday Independent in question of 23 June 1974 which includes a photograph of our present Minister for Justice under the heading “Conflict of Interests on Council”. Deputy Burke is in a nice position as the Minister for Justice of this State and he is in a nice position to berate me or any of my colleagues in this House. This is Minister Burke's background, and when he is opening files and scavenging for dirt perhaps he would read again the unfortunate Joe McAnthony's article of June 1974.
I have a good deal of additional information but time is rapidly running out. However I want to say this. It is a bit difficult to listen to a lecture on morality from Minister Burke who, for much of his political career, acted as the enforcer, protector and provider for land speculators. The fact that Deputy Burke was appointed Minister for Justice says a lot about the Taoiseach's choice of friends and assessment of character. Gasps of disbelief went around the fraud squad in Harcourt Square when that Cabinet appointment was made in 1989 and they discovered that their new political master was to be a man who himself had been the subject of an intensive fraud squad inquiry arising from his activities as an auctioneer and politician in North Dublin.
Deputy Burke clearly believes that the events which occurred in 1971 and 1972 are legitimate matters to raise in this debate. If he can cast his mind back that far again perhaps he would cast it back to one year earlier. He demanded answers from The Workers' Party. Perhaps he should also ask some questions relating to the illegal plot to import arms in 1970. I should like to ask the Taoiseach if it is true that it is a condition for any journalist seeking an interview with him that no questions relating to the arms plot may be raised? Why has the Taoiseach never commented on the suggestions made by Mr. Justice Henchy in his summing up at the arms trial that either Deputy Haughey or Deputy Gibbons had committed perjury? Who did the Taoiseach meet at that time? Did he meet with people who where then leading members of the IRA? What was his knowledge of the circumstances of the establishment of the Provisional IRA? Why has the Taoiseach never commented on the statement made in the Dáil on 1 December 1972 by his former cabinet colleague, Deputy Blaney who said, and I quote:
Not only did circumstances bring the freedom fighters into existence but so did the promised support of help, not just by me but by a lot of other people as well. The blame lies on me and a whole lot of others, who helped to bring into existence shortly after those who are now condemned as terrorists, murderers — the gunmen of the Provisional IRA.
That is a brief excerpt of the response I should like to make to the scurrilous assaults on my party by the Taoiseach and Deputy Burke. To ask us to vote confidence in a Government which is led by one and has the other as Minister for Justice is to ask too much of us.