The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, has said corruption has brought politics into disrepute. In Drogheda yesterday at the formal introduction of the party's next general election candidate for Louth, Mr Arthur Morgan, Mr Adams said the public was being asked to believe "that nobody knew there was a conspiracy between big banking, big business and senior politicians".
"If you focus too much on the former Taoiseach maybe you miss the point. This is part of a culture of corruption. If you focus too much on Dublin you may think this is just a Dublin disease; in fact it is part of the lack of accountability, [lack] of empowerment and [lack] of building political strength from the base upwards."
Mr Adams said the Celtic Tiger was partitionist and increasingly middle-class. It was a "national disgrace" that a Government with the biggest budget surplus in the history of the State was not providing proper childcare facilities or health services facilities, nor dealing with the housing crisis.
On the Police (Northern Ireland) Bill, Mr Adams said he expected the Northern Secretary to move "some distance" towards the Patten recommendations. "Unless he moves in such a way as to fully embrace the Patten recommendations, there is little chance of there being a police service which nationalists and republicans could either support or be part of the police force that is envisaged in the Mandelson Policing Bill," he added.