At long last, with scandal layered upon scandal and the standing of politicians at an all-time low, the main party leaders have moved to re-assert the primacy of parliament in a democracy. In a gesture unprecedented since the establishment of the tribunals and the tales of corruption which have flowed endlessly from them, Mr Bertie Ahern, Ms Mary Harney, Mr John Bruton and Mr Ruairi Quinn have been provoked by the conduct of Mr Liam Lawlor, the Dublin West TD who had to resign from Fianna Fail some months ago, to disown his cavalier treatment of the Flood Tribunal.
The short statement made by the four party leaders belies the significance of it being made, on such a matter, at all. It took nearly ten hours of negotiations for them to agree to preface it with a reference to Mr Lawlor before they endorsed the remarks made by the Taoiseach earlier in the Dail. "We are issuing this statement because of our concern about the position taken by Deputy Liam Lawlor in regard to the Flood Tribunal", they said.
In the initial exchanges on the Order of Business yesterday morning, all the party leaders proposed different courses of action. The Fine Gael leader wanted the Dail to express its concern that Mr Lawlor should appear before the tribunal to answer questions placed on the public record. The leader of the Labour Party sought to have a motion calling on Mr Lawlor to attend the tribunal or to resign forthwith from the Dail. The Taoiseach, in response, stated that "every citizen and every member of the Oireachtas has a legal, moral and democratic duty to co-operate with the tribunal, not to obstruct it and to comply with its lawful orders".
Despite the different approaches, however, it was abundantly clear that all of the party leaders wanted to register their disapproval of Mr Lawlor's defiance of a tribunal set up by the Dail. It was Mr Bruton's suggestion, in the end, that they would take the unusual step of issuing a joint statement dissociating themselves from the unbecoming action of a fellow member of the Dail. The party leaders have come together in the past to exhort people to come out to vote but never before have they united on a matter of this nature. It was a timely intervention necessitated, as Mr Quinn said, to uphold the dignity of people who stand for election, who make laws and must abide by them.
The Flood Tribunal went to the High Court yesterday seeking to compel Mr Lawlor, a former member of the Ethics Committee of the Dail, to appear before it. Mr Lawlor, or his legal representative, must explain his failure to attend on Monday. It seems reasonable to assume, however, that the tribunal is well versed in the ways of procedure at this point and that Mr Lawlor is being treated in the same way as every other witness who has been called to give evidence. That issue will be decided in court.
The tribunal has put eight major allegations against Mr Lawlor on the record. Some of them are new. Most of them relate to substantial payments. One of them refers to "bribes paid to politicians" in respect of named developments. These allegations, based on information which the tribunal has received in the course of its inquiries, are very serious indeed. They touch at the very cornerstone of democracy, even more so when they are made against a member of the Dail. The four party leaders, in these circumstances, had to vindicate their profession and speak out with one voice.