This motion of confidence comes at mid-term, halfway through the present Government's period of office. It comes at a time when the Government are facing serious economic and social problems. It is precisely at this time and in this sort of situation that the Government need to be given a mandate by the House to get on with the job - that is what is important.

I am voting for them very strongly here and I am speaking in favour of a motion of confidence in the Government on that account. Nobody wants a general election at this stage. So far as any of us can gauge the pulse of public opinion, it is quite evident that what the public want is for this Government to stay and deal with the problems. The problems are there. I share with others from all parties who have spoken with concern about a series of economic and social problems facing Irish society at present. Those problems are a matter for the Government to tackle as expeditiously as possible; they are not a reason for a general election. In my view, this is precisely the time we should not have a general election. It is a period in which we must gather the forces in our community together and tackle the problems that are there and that have certainly come upon us in a substantial way, particularly in the past 12 months.
[835] The problems are there for us all to see. There is the jobs crisis - and it should be called a crisis - and there is the related problem of stimulating investment to cope with that. There is the further problem on the agricultural front of negotiating the whole Common Agricultural Policy with a view to meeting reforms in that policy that are essential if the nations of the world are to get together into what is required, a new trading relationship under the auspices of GATT. It is quite certain the Common Agricultural Policy, as devised at present, giving rise to the surpluses that have arisen, is inadequate to deal in a rational way with agricultural policies within the European Community or with the trading policies of the Community with the rest of the world. That is a major task now facing the Government. On the three important aspects of jobs, investment and the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy what we need is to have the present Government in place, directed by this House, to pursue this course vigorously.
Then, of course, there is the overriding problem of the public finances facing into a serious budgetary position, one that will have to be dealt with no matter who is in Government. A general election will not solve that. Whatever Government is put in place will have to face up to that problem, of getting the nation's finances in order and presenting a budget to this House at the end of January next, that will create the necessary climate of confidence in our capacity to handle our financial affairs. Unless that climate of confidence is there - and seen by the world at large to be there - we will not get the investment required to deal with the jobs crisis. All of these problems are interlinked and can be dealt with only by a Government in power backed by a mandate of this House. All that a general election can ensure, or all that any divisive approach to the Government of this country can ensure at present is a degeneration into further chaos, chaos in regard to all the problem areas I have just mentioned. That is something the [836] general public do not want. We can keep the matter in perspective if we take that national approach to it: there must be a Government in place to handle these serious problems that have arisen. This Government is in mid-term and has another two to two-and-a-half years to deal with them.
Of course, part of that problem is the very important matter of confidence in Government administration. Government administration must be seen to be competent, must be seen to be clear and fair. In brief, we must have good government, there must be seen to be good government, transparently there must be good government. That is why these recent financial scandals - and they are financial scandals - have clouded the atmosphere in this respect. In order to ensure that the climate of confidence we require is maintained and enhanced the Government's paramount duty is to clear the air in regard to these financial scandals. These financial scandals are not of a political making. Politicians of all parties in this House do this democratic institution a grave disservice in throwing about political allegations - and this applies to all parties in the House - when what we are dealing with here is a number of financial scandals, particularly in regard to executives in the State-sponsored service. These financial scandals will have to be dealt with expeditiously, blame apportioned and action taken by the Government to deal with the people responsible. What we are dealing with there is a new form of greed culture not just endemic here but in many other parts of the world. We have seen similar type scandals occur in New York, Tokyo and in London, all within the past few months. There has been also a major financial banking scandal involving the BCCI.
This sort of financial or what one might describe as greed culture that has developed here and in other parts of the world is part of the new growth of speculation surrounding money markets made possible by easy computerised communications and the new technological capacity to make a fast buck. This must [837] be controlled in the social interest. Indeed it is the duty of every Government to introduce the social controls required to deal with the vicissitudes of the marketplace and of the money market. That is a paramount social obligation lying on the shoulders of every Government in the democracies of the world, to ensure that financial matters governing the marketplace are under social control and management, to ensure that if there is to be a free market, it really is a free and fair one. I predict that it will be in that area that the new politics of the social market will prevail, involving the marketplace, in regard to the competitive exchange of goods and services while, at the same time, ensuring that the marketplace is a really fair and equitable one, supervised by ethical rules and regulations. In addition, if people disobey those ethical rules and regulations they must suffer penalties by way of fines or imprisonment, penalties of whatever kind are deemed to be proper.
The main thrust of what the Government should do at present is pursue to the utmost degree the various investigative inquiries that have been set afoot in regard to the four financial scandals there have been within our community in recent times. Such an approach has been adopted and inspectors appointed to ascertain the facts in regard to the Sugar Company-Greencore affair, in regard to the Telecom affair, in regard to the Aer Lingus Holdings involving a scandal amongst executives of their own travel subsidiary. The Director of Public Prosecutions has a file in regard to that matter. In regard to the Goodman affair a tribunal is now sitting and the courts are interacting with that tribunal.
I should like to deal with what is in my view the grossest of those scandals, that is the one involving the Sugar Company and Greencore, involving the privatisation of the Sugar Company and the transactions that took place within the Sugar Company within a few months in 1989-90 when a profit of some 7 million to 8 million was made by four or five - depending on who owned Talmino, the offshore company - executives of the [838] Sugar Company and of its subsidiary, Irish Sugar Distributors. That profit of 7 million to 8 million involved an appreciation of 500 per cent in value over a few months in 1989-90. That 500 per cent profit of 7 million to 8 million went into the pockets of those executives of the Irish Sugar Company and its subsidiary, Irish Sugar Distributors. They were facilitated in that respect by an interest-free loan of 1 million, made available for the purpose of that transition, enabling Gladebrook Limited to acquire a 49 per cent share subsequently taken over by the Sugar Company proper.
Those are the facts of the matter. What is even more serious than that - and that is serious enough - is the fact that that appreciation of 500 per cent, involving that profit of 7 million to 8 million was approved by the chief executive of the Investment Bank of Ireland, Mr. Richard Hooper. Therefore, that particular profit made within a few months on a product that did not change in value or volume, that is sugar, in a captive market called the Republic of Ireland, was approved by the Investment Bank of Ireland as being a legitimate appreciation in value of those particular shares within that short period of a few months. That is intolerable; that is criminality, nothing more, nothing less, on the part of the people involved, on the part of all the advisers involved, financial consultants, accountants, lawyers and also the chairman and chief executive of what was then the Irish Sugar Company, now Greencore Limited. The chief executive and secretary of Greencore Limited have already parted company with Greencore. The chairman remains. In my view he should follow suit.
That is a financial scandal. It has nothing to do with politics, politicians or Government. In my view all political parties in this House do a disservice to democracy by implying that there is anything political whatever in that. Yes, it is symptomatic of a type of greed culture, a sort of behavioural phenomenon occurring so blatantly with the co-operation of so many professional people. It is outside [839] the arena of politics but something with which politicians must deal.
It is the challenge of this Government - and I am glad to see they are facing up to it - to fully investigate this matter to ensure that these investigations are concluded as expeditiously as possible, so that when those conclusions come to hand Government action will be taken, be seen to be taken by them, in order to allay public disquiet, thereby ensuring there is not a repetition of such action in the future. There have been similar instances of malpractice of a financial kind in the Telecom affair, in the Aer Lingus Holiday's affair and in the Goodman affair. They are all being properly investigated and when conclusions are reached I hope action will be taken.
One further aspect should be seriously considered by the Government and by the House in the interests of establishing permanent confidence among the public at home and abroad in our financial institutions and in our administration generally. We must ensure so far as is humanly possible that matters of the kind I have mentioned do not happen again. We will not be able to prevent fraud or malpractice but we can ensure as far as possible that there is transparency in these matters and that the Government of the day are seen to be setting up the requisite procedures.
The Government should examine as a matter of urgency the establishment of a watchdog commission on the lines of a similar commission in the United States which supervises the Stock Exchange and financial dealings by the Government and the public. We have ample precedents here of efficient and effective commissions. The Civil Service Commissioners supervise the area of Civil Service appointments. Local appointments are dealt with by the Local Appointment Commissioners. There are also the Revenue Commissioners. For over 100 years the Land Commissioners performed a fantastic task in transferring [840] land from the landlord class to the tenantry and in the process providing for compensation right across the board.

Indeed they did, but we remedied them from time to time. We have a tradition of commissions of this kind. We have commissioners who are independent of the Government of the day in performing their duties. We need such a commission to supervise the allocation of contracts and consultancies, be they legal or financial, on the part of Government Departments, Government Agencies and semi-State agencies. Fees for estate agents, accountants, stockbrokers and lawyers should be set on a statutory basis when they are employed by a public body. We need a panel of such people which will be scrutinised and reviewed from time to time by the commissioners. All State and semi-State contracts and consultancies over a certain level should be allocated by these commissioners on statutory criteria which are above and beyond reproach.
In view of the involvement of State-sponsored companies, a similar body should be appointed to supervise appointments to State boards. This should include the appointment of chairmen of such boards. There are plenty of able people in the professional and commercial life of this country who are fitted to take on these jobs. I do not accept that there is a scarcity of such people. A panel should be established by the Government from which selections should be made for appointments to State boards in an ordinary capacity and as chairmen. Such a system of fair allocation of contracts and consultancies would be supervised by independent commissioners, free from Government control and interference. That would establish confidence in the Administration. Such confidence is as important as confidence in financial matters. All this promotes confidence in investment, which helps to deal with the job problem.
[841] No one Government are to blame for what has happened over the last couple of years. The chairman of Greencore was appointed in 1985 by the then Fine Gael/Labour Government. I do not want to make a point about that. Over a number of years appointments and the allocation of contracts and consultancies have been made on a rather casual basis. Certain people have got on to the inside track in regard to these appointments. The same names and the same firms tend to come up, whether it is NCB or Investment Bank of Ireland. It appears there is an incestuous ring of people who, on the nod, get these various positions and contracts.
The only defence I have heard - and I do not accept it - is that we are a small country and only a limited number of people are capable of doing these jobs. I do not accept that. There is ample talent, particularly young talent, in the business and professional world who can take on the privatisation of Telecom ireann or of any other State body if that is decided upon by the Government. I cannot understand why, in the midst of the investigation following the Greencore matter, we had the prospect of Telecom ireann taking on NCB and the Investment Bank of Ireland to advise them on privatisation. One wonders at the attitude of mind that dictated that decision within a few weeks of the Greencore affair. The Minister for Communications stepped into that matter quickly after the Taoiseach had rightly spoken on the radio. The two parties concerned properly withdrew from the Telecom ireann contract - I refer to NCB and Investment Bank of Ireland.

We know what happened in regard to Mr. Desmond and other people who rightly resigned or stepped aside depending on the phraseology one uses. Justice must be seen to be done on a non-selective basis. The chairman of Greencore should follow that example, as well as any other people who [842] were involved in practices not appropriate to their position. That is the only possible approach. Everything must be transparent and above board so that justice is seen to be done. We must establish for the future a system which is fair and open, run by a permanent commission who will deal with these matters so that malpractices are at least less likely to arise.
I will conclude on a point which has arisen out of the discussions which have taken place throughout the country and in this House during the past two days, that is, the need to strengthen the institutions of this country. Let the media examine their own conscience. We will examine our situation and whatever Government is there will do the same. We are in a working democracy and we do not want to create a mood of hysteria or start a witch hunt when problems arise. Problems arise and when they arise they should be dealt with in a rational way and a permanent arrangement established to deal with them. We should not be engaging in the sort of vindictive debate we have seen in this House in the past two days. There should not be the kind of vindictive comment we have seen in the media and have heard from various politicians and commentators. I do not want to start apportioning blame. All I am saying is that all of this does not do any of us any good. If I am in Opposition it does not do any good to start this sort of campaign against whoever is in Government at the time. It does not do the Opposition parties any good to take up the cudgels in this way. Nor does it do the media any good. It does not do any good for the morale of the public. It does nobody any good to get into this sewer of political exchanges when the sensible thing is to acknowledge that there are problems and that these problems should be tackled in as rational a way as possible.
At another level of public debate we have seen what has been happening in the US where undoubtedly politicians and political leaders have brought the whole system into total disrepute. There is a witch hunt in regard to judicial appointments. God forbid that we will ever have [843] a system of judicial appointments here where one's past can be looked into to that extent. That is not the way to go about business. It has caused massive hysteria in the United States. It has appealed to everything that is banal, trivial, prurient. It has been a titillating exercise in which the whole of the United States has been involved trying to out-Dallas the worst in "Dallas".
We have been at a little bit of this ourselves in recent weeks. The less of it we have now the better. Let us get down to business. This House should, tomorrow, vote confidence in the Government as an indicator from us that the Government are getting on with the business of dealing with the serious economic and social problems and of restoring confidence in the financial management of our affairs through a budget that is transparently honest next January; that in regard to the overall administration of our society here this Government are taking measures to finally bring to a conclusion the current investigations, deal immediately with the conclusions of those investigations and set up some sort of structure or structures along the lines I have mentioned to ensure that there is seen to be clear and clean Government and a certain degree of confidence in the administration for the future.

