NO member of the Fianna Fail front bench or parliamentary party was in any way compromised by the "Dunnes/Lowry affair", the party leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, has said.
In a speech at the final session of The Irish Times debate at Trinity College Dublin, last night, he committed Fianna Fail, in Government, to the establishment of an ethics commission to oversee the integrity of public officials and to monitor the interests of those who sought to influence them.
"The Public Ethics Commission would be independently appointed and headed by a high-level public official, who would have the status of a High Court judge or the Ombudsman. The commission would be charged with the task of examining any allegations of impropriety or ethical breaches or any reports of such allegations," Mr Ahern added.
Saying he supported the motion "that this House would support public funding of political parties", he said that, as leader of Fianna Fail, he demanded of himself and colleagues a "genuine integrity and decency".
"I will enforce that demand within the party and when in government ... I am committed to the idea that Fianna Fail will live by the higher standards I propose not only in power but even before taking office," he declared.
Mr Ahern also confirmed that he was setting up a committee of his party to put together a code of practice to which all his parliamentary party, now and in the future, would be obliged to subscribe.
The public could not and would not write a blank cheque for political parties. Any public funding of parties would never be more than partial finding "and private contributions will always be needed". This reality brought into stark relief two crucial issues which were also increasingly urgent.
"First, the public have the right to demand high standards from politicians and political parties, whether or not they are being publicly funded," Mr Ahern said.
Second, the public had a right to "honest disclosure of any substantial private political contributions, as defined in law". They also had the right to a transparency which would ensure that politicians were not being compromised in any way in regulating business or legislating for the public interest.
The public did not expect their politicians to be saints but they must demand integrity and decency from them.
Mr Ahern said he asked each off the current Fianna Fail parliamentary party to declare their involvement in the recent payments controversy. He wanted his own party and the public to know the facts and he was "satisfied" that none was compromised by the affair.