Mr Charles Haughey should be asked to resign as a member of the Council of State, the independent presidential candidate, Mr Derek Nally, said yesterday. Mr Nally said that if he was elected President next Thursday he would want Mr Haughey to step down because of what had emerged about him at the McCracken tribunal. However, Mr Haughey was a member of the council, the President's advisory body, as a matter of right under the Constitution and it was not even clear if he could resign.
"Every former Taoiseach is ex officio a member of the Council of State and there is no procedure whereby they can be removed from it," Mr Nally said in a statement. "If there was such a procedure, I would use it to remove Mr Haughey from the position after my election to the Presidency. . .
"The McCracken tribunal report showed clearly that he betrayed the trust placed in him by the Irish people over several decades and he should no longer be a welcome visitor to Aras an Uachtarain," said Mr Nally.
He complained that truth, honesty and decency had been lost because too many people in public life were out for private gain only.
"As a result, the honourable profession of politics has been brought into disrepute by parties who are too preoccupied with the latest dirty tricks to see how fed up people are with their behaviour," he added.