Mr. J. Higgins:
This very morning the Government
has thrown thousands of Aer Lingus
workers to the multinational wolves, on stock
exchanges around the world. Yesterday, the
Government had gardai´ pushing the decent
people of Rossport around the place at the behest
of the Shell Oil corporation.
Mr. F. McGrath:
Hear, hear.
Mr. J. Higgins:
At every hand's turn the
Taoiseach has facilitated the powerful and the
very wealthy. Therefore it is no surprise that
wealthy businessmen should cough up
..50,000 to
him. What is shocking is that the Taoiseach still
apparently does not see that a Minister for Finance
taking large amounts of cash from businessmen
is by any objective yardstick a massive
conflict of interest. The Taoiseach minimises the
amount of money, but in 1993 the average industrial
wage was
..13,416 per year, so that three
times that amount, by any ordinary worker's standard,
would be colossal. By coincidence, two
years after that I bought a semi-detached home
for
..47,000 with a mortgage that goes on until I
am 65. At no stage should the Taoiseach have
brought his personal life or difficulties into this
issue. It is not relevant.
Again last night, deliberately, he cast RTE's
Brian Dobson in the role of agony aunt in order
to divert attention from the critical issues which
he is refusing to answer. The Taoiseach's personal
circumstances are irrelevant because he said, last
night, that he had already got a bank loan to pay
off pressing bills, that they were taken care of.
Presumably he had a schedule of repayments to
the bank. He then used what he says were personal
loans to pay off the bank loan. Can he
explain that conundrum to the House?
When the Taoiseach was in the Da´ il in 1997
setting up tribunals on payments to politicians, it
beggars belief that the alarm bells that should
have been going off in his head were not so deafening
as——
An Ceann Comhairle:
The Deputy's time has
concluded.
Mr. J. Higgins:
——to tell him to pay back the
..
50,000. It was at the very least a catastrophic
failure of political judgment. It further beggars
belief that he could not give it back. Did the
Taoiseach ever hear of a bank draft? This morning
it took me two minutes to draft the letter the
Taoiseach could send with it:
Ah Jaysus lads, you'll have me in huge trouble
if you don't take back the
..50,000. My circumstances
are improved and I'll have 50 reporters
traipsing after me for the rest of my life if this
comes out. Bertie.
It was as simple as that. Perhaps he might have
said: "P.S. Tell Paddy the plasterer to steer clear
of Callely's house. He is in enough trouble with
the painter already."
A senior Minister gets substantial amounts of
money from wealthy people. Half of them are
37
Leaders' 27 September 2006. Questions 38
subsequently lifted into influential positions on
prestigious State bodies. What would any objective
assessment of that be in any jurisdiction?
That was nauseous patronage and cronyism.
Incredibly, the Taoiseach blocked it out last
night: the appointments were not because they
gave him money but because they were his
friends. That is just as bad. Can he not understand
that appointing cronies to State boards
because they are friends is the most despicable
abuse of the State and of public bodies?
An Ceann Comhairle:
The Deputy's time has
concluded. He must give way to the Taoiseach.
Mr. J. Higgins:
Finally, we had the hapless
Deputy Callely. A businessman gave his house a
slap of paint.
An Ceann Comhairle:
I ask the Deputy to
please give way to the Taoiseach.
Mr. J. Higgins:
That caused the Taoiseach to
show him the door, while he walked away with
the whole house. By those standards, should the
Taoiseach not go after the former Minister of
State, Deputy Callely?
The Taoiseach:
As I said earlier, these were
loans with interest, not from businessmen but
friends. My friends have been described as businessmen
but the impression given that they are
captains of industry is far from the truth. They
are people who assisted me at a particular time
because they knew the circumstances. I accepted
that only on the basis these were loans with
interest. That is the position.
Every person appointed to a State board
whether by myself or my colleagues is someone
we believe is qualified for such an appointment.
They are appointments based on merit taking
into account the particular combination of skills,
qualifications, background and life experience
that each person has. Over a long political career
I know a great many people who have been
appointed to key boards. I knew these people.
They had relevant skills and experience. Three of
the five had served on State boards long before
they gave me any loan. The other two could be
considered under any fair examination to be outstanding
people who served the State well on
these boards. I do not accept the position
outlined.
Deputy Joe Higgins can make the point that all
of this is a bit of fun. I do not see it as a bit of
fun but as a serious issue. As regards paying them
back and how, he could be right in saying that I
should have paid them back. Perhaps I should
have just paid them back and not worried how it
would be interpreted, although I had taken the
initiative of giving documentation to the tribunals.
I should have been able to say that I had
paid them back over several years. I did not do it
that way because I thought that would be seen as
just doing it at that particular time. I followed the
advice I got to the effect that these matters could
not come out, and that I should keep the interest
and the paperwork up to date.
Deputy Rabbitte asked me earlier whether
there was documentation on the circumstances of
these loans from the individuals concerned. There
is comprehensive documentation and it is with
the tribunal as well. On the issue of the Deutsche
Bank and the forgery, the tribunals, I believe,
have finished with that matter. I mention it
because again, it was a sinister act to try to set
me up by suggesting I had extensive accounts. I
am not making a point about it, however it shows
the things one has to try and deal with. That is
why I dealt with the tribunals so comprehensively.
Mr. J. Higgins:
I do not think it is a bit of fun,
but sometimes one has to resort to ridicule to
show the untenable position the Taoiseach is
holding onto with his explanations. The
Taoiseach is not the only person who has to offer
an explanation to the House. In the face of
patronage, cronyism and double standards we
have the Trappist-like silence from the Ta´ naiste
and leader of the Progressive Democrats. In a
previous life in Opposition, one can only imagine
the fulminations that would rain down from on
high on the Taoiseach's head from Deputy
McDowell as regards these issues. To say he
would become beetroot red is really only a pallid
description of the shade of crimson verging on
purple which would describe the glow irradiating
from the indignant persona of Deputy
McDowell.
An Ceann Comhairle:
The Deputy's time has
concluded.
Mr. J. Higgins:
Far from standing up for standards,
he is sitting neatly beside the Taoiseach
today. Admittedly, his demeanour is rather tombstone
like, without the moonlight even. However,
since his appointment two weeks ago, Deputy
McDowell is trying to work hard to have us
believe he has no previous history in Government,
that he has not been in Government for ten
years, and that he has no responsibility for the
billions of euro in stamp duty and the rest. He
wants us to believe he is a political newborn,
dropped by a stork, perhaps, into a basket outside
Government Buildings two weeks ago, with
Deputy O'Donnell playing along as the besotted
nurse fetchingly referring to him as Michael, if
one does not mind. That is somewhat different
from the name she was spitting out two months
ago from behind clenched teeth, when Michael
was trying to take the PD rattler from Mary.
What has the Ta´ naiste said to the Taoiseach
about this and will he make a statement?
The image which Fianna Fa´ il has carefully cultivated
of the Taoiseach, who is on
..250,000 per
annum, is that of an ordinary, struggling man like
39
Northern 27 September 2006. Ireland Issues 40
[Mr. J. Higgins.]
the rest of the ordinary people out there. This
image has taken a fierce battering. Ordinary
people do not have wealthy friends to do a whip
around and the myth that Fianna Fa´ il is somehow
the ordinary working person's party will hopefully
end with this episode, where rich people
come to the assistance of senior politicians.
Deputies:
Hear, hear.
The Taoiseach:
As I said a number of times,
these people are friends. If the Deputy wants to
categorise people who are friends, that is his
entitlement, but it is not an offence to get loans
from friends at times. I did that one time in my
55 years on this earth. If in hindsight that was not
the wisest thing to do, so be it, but I think there
are few of us in this House who have not benefited
from friendship at times, particularly in
times of difficulty. I have broken no laws and
have violated no ethical codes. I have co-operated
fully with tribunals that are there to make findings
of fact. Other circumstances are used to put
out half-truths, exaggerations and claims. I made
it very clear what I did and did not do, and I did
so many years ago under the confidentiality of
tribunals to show that I had nothing to do with
any of the issues that I was accused of doing.
People are well aware of what has been stated
about me over a number of years. I would not
wish that people in this House would have to go
through the same process I have had to go
through in the past eight or nine years to prove
that I had no hand, act or part in any of the
serious allegations that have been pressed against
me, but time will see that right.
Deputies:
Hear, hear.
Ms Shortall:
The tribunals will see that right.