Moriarty report to be referred to DPP

THE MORIARTY report is to be referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Garda Commissioner, the Taoiseach has confirmed in the Dáil.

During Leaders’ Questions, Enda Kenny also said the report would be debated in the Dáil next week.

The 2,348-page document, published on Tuesday, found that former minister for communications Michel Lowry, now an Independent TD for Tipperary North, had “secured the winning” of the State’s second mobile phone licence for Denis O’Brien’s Esat Digifone.

Mr Kenny said the incident concerning the $50,000 donation to Fine Gael was “wrong”, adding: “I regret the circuitous route that it had to follow before it was sent back to Mr O’Brien.”

He also reiterated the Government’s intention to “move swiftly to ban corporate donations completely to demonstrate a complete break between any business and politics”.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin claimed there had been a “deafening silence” from the Government and that Fine Gael had not made a single spokesman available to the media.

Mr Kenny said he had asked Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte to refer the report to the DPP and to the Garda Commission and said there would be a “proper debate” next week on the issue.

“We will arrange for questions to be had at the end of the debate.”

When the first report about former Fianna Fáil leader Charlie Haughey was published on December 19th, 2006, Mr Kenny added, there were “no statements until February 14th, 2007, and no questions allowed”.

Mr Martin accused him of participating in fundraising events “targeted by Esat to help them to win the licence. You were already leader of Fine Gael in 2003 when journalists tried and failed to get an answer from you about the secret $50,000 donation.”

Mr Kenny said no Fine Gael leader “ever pocketed whiparounds at dinners”.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, who called for an immediate debate on the report, said its detailing of the $50,000 donation to Fine Gael “reads like a novel”.

He said a payment was “solicited on behalf of Fine Gael”. The donation was made by a Mr Johansen, who “said he would need some form of paper documentation. He’s told by the Fine Gael representative ‘we’ll issue an invoice’, which is then expressed as having been for consultancy work. He asked how could Fine Gael recognise this as a donation. He was then told ‘this is no problem’ and it was made into an offshore account.”

When Mr Adams described this as “money-laundering of a very classical kind”, the Government benches erupted in sustained laughter.

Mr Kenny retorted that suggestions had been made Mr Adams and Sinn Féin knew about the Northern Bank raid and he might deal with that during the debate, a call the Sinn Féin leader described as a “cheap jibe”.

Mr Kenny said the report referred to the $50,000 being “unwelcome by the party and rejected by the party leader” and that the report “exonerates party leaders and members of the Cabinet in its findings”.

He reminded Mr Adams that “you accept the findings of the report” and he hoped he was “man enough” to reflect that in statements outside the House.

He reiterated the Government’s commitment to ban corporate donations completely and pointed out that Fianna Fáil “wouldn’t go so far as to publish the secret agreement that they had with Deputy Lowry to stay in power”.

Mr Adams asked again if there were donations to the party from any other sources that had not been declared, but the Taoiseach said: “The Fine Gael party complies strictly with the law insofar as any political contributions are concerned.”