Once, when Frank Dunlop was press secretary to a government led by Charles Haughey, he silenced political correspondents with the words: "From now on, you can't take anything I say on trust."
It was an extraordinary warning, given the importance of trust between press secretary and correspondents. But Dunlop was only beginning to understand what a rough customer his new boss was.
It has taken a series of tribunals, from Hamilton to Flood, to fill in the murky background. And of course we have yet to discover the depths to which politics has sunk in the last 20 years. But lack of trust looks certain to precipitate another general election as the Progressive Democrats, weary of waiting for the worst, prepare to meet the challenge of corruption head-on.
After warnings by the party chairman, John Minihan, and the parliamentary group, which met on Wednesday, Des O'Malley and Liz O'Donnell explained why the PDs might find it necessary to quit before the Flood tribunal issues its final report. O'Donnell made no bones about her view that if Fianna Fail TDs are found to have taken money for votes on land rezoning, then "serious sanctions" would follow. And if that meant the Government was "not sustainable" it would be "a price worth paying."
O'Malley made a significant distinction between the legal and political consequences of evidence given by Dunlop. The legal consequences would have to await publication of the tribunal's report, which might not happen for a year or more. The political consequences, however, would be clear when Dunlop, who is giving evidence under subpoena, has been questioned about his statement by any of those named in it - perhaps in three or four weeks.
When Seamus Brennan was asked about these views, he said Fianna Fail wouldn't wait for an ultimatum from the PDs: if there was "hard evidence" of impropriety, those against whom the cases were proved would be "out on their ears." Bertie Ahern didn't quite join the rush to judgment. He distinguished between those who'd sold their votes and those who were helped with their election expenses.
And, when the conservative parties were challenged by Ruairi Quinn on the issue of corporate donations - which Labour certainly and the PDs tentatively wish to ban - the Taoiseach said no, maybe, and would ye like to discuss it, in committee?
Quinn took this for evasion. Fine Gael's response, he reported, had been a bit more sympathetic to Labour's view: it favoured banning donations to candidates, not to the party. The Labour leader, who now believes an election may come "sooner rather than later," intends to press ahead with a private member's motion on corporate funding next week, which should add to the air of excitement.
In the meantime, we should remember this week at the Lindsay tribunal, and the reality of political decisions and the provision of health services. We should be warned about the governments and agencies which, through meanness, mismanagement or neglect, allowed those who've appeared at the tribunals to suffer as they did and do.
They can hardly be blamed for losing faith in politics. For them - and for how many more in poverty, illness and desperation? - trust is a thing of the past.
Trust between partners is essential to coalition governments. But now the Progressive Democrats are in a state of jitters with the Haugheys, the Burkes, the Flynns and the Foleys under scrutiny and several other Fianna Failers, high and low, under suspicion. It's not only waiting for thuds in the night; while they wait, the PDs are expected to swallow excuses that would shame an oldtime shyster from Tammany Hall.
It was all in the past, they say. It wasn't. Not if you listen to Dunlop. His evidence brought the story bang up to date. It's spread over all parties, they say. It's not - not evenly, at any rate, despite the efforts to suggest that Pat Rabbitte's decision to send back a donation of £2,000 which he never sought can be equated with the councillor thought insatiable.
Corruption exists largely in Fianna Fail, less often in Fine Gael (and at least it has managed to publish the report of its internal party investigation). Labour and others on the left, like the Green Party, are not contaminated.
Bertie is doing his best to clean it up, they say. Well, he's talked about it with monotonous regularity - every year since he took over the party's leadership in 1994. It's beginning to sound like the three Hail Marys for the conversion of Russia.
Ah, but Bertie is serious, they say. A man for the tough question at the right time. As his handling of Burke, Flynn and Foley proves. Not to mention the latest line in Dunlop's surefire lottery for councillors. "And the numbers are 3, 5, 9, 15 and 24, not forgetting the bonus number, 31. And the winning ticket was sold in Conway's of Parnell Street."
But if it's action you're looking for, hold your horses, not your breath.
Of course, Ahern has claimed that he - and no other Taoiseach - set up the tribunals. But the Oireachtas decides when and on what terms tribunals are set up. And it's to the Dail, not the Government or the Taoiseach, that the tribunals are obliged to report.
I've said it before: Ahern's claim is balderdash.
But he trotted it out again on Thursday when he told Joe Little of RTE: "It took a good government to set up the tribunals." It did not. It took an Oireachtas decision and, in FF's case, a lot of persuasion.
MARY Harney said lately that legislation doesn't make dishonest politicians honest. She's right. This is politics, not oldtime religion; a civic code, not a search for a formula to ease your conscience.
What it can do is prevent dishonest politicians doing their worst by reducing the opportunities for systematic abuse while protecting, as far as possible, those who have the common good at heart.
It's not beyond the wit of experienced civil servants and skilled draughtsmen to deal with a Bill's legal and technical framework - if the politicians have the guts and the will to support the principle.
If ministers have neither the guts nor the will, and those propping up the government operate at the level of the lowest common denominator, the civil servants will take their cue from their political bosses.
Governments here have a long, dishonourable tradition of making out that change is more difficult than it is. Because they are afraid that a minor change will bring the house down, they turn a blind eye to awkward contradictions and let promises die of inertia.
And when the Oireachtas sets up tribunals which an officer of the High Court - Taxing Master James Flynn - calls star chambers and compares to monsters, pathetic politicians sing dumb.
dwalsh@irish-times.ie