Heated exchanges over revelations from tribunal

Dáil Report: Revelations at the Mahon tribunal led to heated exchanges between the Taoiseach and Green Party leader Trevor Sargent.

Bertie Ahern insisted that he never condoned wrongdoing when Mr Sargent challenged him on a Fianna Fáil inquiry into donations to politicians.

Mr Ahern said the Government had set up the Mahon tribunal into irregularities in the planning process, along with many other inquiries, to get to the bottom of any wrongdoing going on anywhere, including Dublin City Council.

"That is the position of the Government and of my party, as Deputy Sargent knows very well."

Mr Sargent said the Mahon tribunal had revealed that Fianna Fáil Senator Don Lydon failed to tell an internal party inquiry about £7,000 he had received from Dublin landowner Christopher Jones in 1992.

Fianna Fáil TD GV Wright, a Dublin North constituency colleague of Mr Sargent, had told the inquiry he had received £500 from one of Mr Jones's companies, but he had got a £5,000 donation in November 1992, and £500 in 1997.

Mr Sargent said they were talking about a "senator who, with other Fianna Fáil, and some Fine Gael, councillors, was apoplectic when I asked a basic question in 1993 as to whether any councillor in Dublin City Council received a cheque".

The Senator, he added, was "so apoplectic that he held me in a headlock and went to grab a £100 cheque sent to the Green Party".

He asked if Mr Ahern considered this acceptable behaviour, and wondered if he intended expelling those members "or sever his links with white-collar crime".

Mr Ahern said: "I am certainly sorry if one of my party members caught Deputy Sargent in a headlock in 1993. Had I been there I would have stopped him."

Eamon Ryan (Green Party, Dublin South) said: "The Taoiseach was too busy signing blank cheques at the time."

Mr Sargent said dispersed low-density sprawl was a legacy of bad planning. "Does the Taoiseach accept that much of that legacy is connected with a history of Fianna Fáil corruption and abuse of power, especially on Dublin County Council?"

Mr Ahern, he said, had suspected some of this, and had set up an inquiry into allegations of corruption in Fianna Fáil. "Following the newspaper reports this morning, how will the Taoiseach explain the chronic amnesia from which his lieutenants, Deputy Wright and Senator Lydon, suffer?

"Is there something wrong with the water in Fianna Fáil offices or is it the case, as many suspect, that Fianna Fáil is a haven for aspiring wide boys?"

Ceann Comhairle Dr Rory O'Hanlon said the matters were before the tribunal and it was not appropriate to run a parallel tribunal in the Dáil. Mr Sargent said he would not do that.

"I am asking the Taoiseach about his own inquiry to which Deputy Wright and Senator Lydon told untruths. . ." He wanted to know if Mr Ahern condoned bribery, corruption and bad planning.

"Does he have a policy of telling untruths to a party inquiry and will he ask these two members to step aside, or does he have any standards worth talking about at all?"

Mr Ahern replied: "I never condemn wrongdoing in any area."

Tánaiste Mary Harney, who was sitting next to Mr Ahern, remarked: "Condone".

Mr Ahern said: "Condone. I never condone wrongdoing. We set up the Moriarty tribunal to inquire into payments to politicians."

When Mr Sargent said he was asking about the Taoiseach's inquiry, Mr Ahern said: "I will fill Deputy Sargent in on my inquiry when he fills me in on his inquiry into chemical shares."