Republican News · Thursday 3 October 2002

Contemptuous, complacent, corrupt

THE FLOOD TRIBUNAL'S deliverance of a long awaited verdict on former 26-County Minister for Foreign Affairs Ray Burke last week, has left Fianna Fáil and its governmental allies in the PDs reeling.

Following accusations of dishonesty about the public finances prior to the election, and in advance of what is becoming another hotly contested Nice Treaty campaign, the revelations of Burke's corrupt payments from developers and Century Radio promoters could not have come at a worse time for an administration that prides itself on its public image.

d the bad news just keeps on coming. Fianna Fáil backbenchers met this week, in what has been construed as a "dress-rehearsal" to a leadership challenge. There are rumours that a serving cabinet member received £80,000 in corrupt payments and then there is the suggestion, by those close to Ray Burke, that the former minister has "some information" on Bertie Ahern. It is no wonder that dissatisfaction with the government has risen by 17%, according to an MRBI poll.

Instead of eating humble pie, however, Fianna Fáil still expects the public to believe that Burke's corruption has nothing to do with it. Annoyed at the issue cropping up at a press conference on the Nice Treaty, current Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen blurted: "I really don't think it serves the purposes here."

Lecturing those who remain mistrustful of his party, he said: "And those who have problems in relation to any other issue, we say 'co-operare with the tribunal and deal with it'."

Cowen's complacency is replicated by his fellow ministers, who have been broaching ideas such as reintroducing third-level college fees, taxing children's allowance and scrapping the government's pride-and-joy special savings' scheme as part of a post-election policy of thinking out loud.

Fianna Fáil's exceptional 81 seats in the last election may amount to something of a Pyrrhic victory. Those who voted for the party on a ticket of steady management of the economy, and promises of investment in education and health, may reflect with disgust on the contempt in which their trust has been held.