Ahern warns over 'witchhunts'

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern warned that there would be no end to the "witchhunt" of TDs and Senators, if the Standards in Public Office Commission had powers to start investigations against them where no formal complaint had been made.

Rejecting the commission's call for such a power, Mr Ahern told the Dáil that many people were "prepared to write anonymously or otherwise and say things about members. I could have collected a book of them in the last month, but I shredded all of the comments because I do not believe in that kind of politics."

If such powers were granted, "where will the witchhunts of members start and end in the future?" he asked as he was questioned about the code of conduct for office holders and plans to amend the Ethics Act in the wake of the controversy surrounding payments to him as minister for finance in the early 1990s.

Mr Ahern also defended his remarks that he had appointed people to State boards because they were his friends and insisted that they had the necessary knowledge, experience, and the "patriotic sense of being able to give fulsomely of their time".

Labour leader Pat Rabbitte who claimed that the legislation to amend the Ethics in Public Office Act was a "face saver" for the Tánaiste, following the payments controversy, questioned the need for legislation "to get someone else to adjudicate on whether a gift should be accepted". He called on the Government to include the commission's request to be allowed to investigate matters where a complaint was not formally made.

The Taoiseach however, said he would "not like to see the House turn into the greatest purist in the world, which it is fast becoming. We would lose good members because of that kind of view." He pointed out that "if there is a coherent argument that the commission has difficulty getting people to complain about members, I will listen to it, but it is not the problem where I'm sitting".

He told Green Party leader Trevor Sargent that under the amending legislation it could be a criminal offence for a member not to abide by the decision of the commission on whether a gift or loan should be accepted, but it had to be worked out.

The Labour leader had earlier asked the Taoiseach if he had made the required statements of "material interest" of "gifts, loans or whatever", when he made representations "to other Ministers to appoint a number of members of the Drumcondra dozen".

Mr Ahern said: "I wouldn't appoint somebody to a board under the remit of my department or another department that would be in conflict with that legislation."

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, who raised the issue of the Taoiseach's appointment of friends to State boards, questioned whether that complied with the code of conduct for officeholders.

The Taoiseach said: "I have many friends who, with the greatest respect, lack the knowledge, expertise and experience to serve on boards. The number of those people whom one would appoint is limited."

Sinn Féin's Dáil leader, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, asked whether the Taoiseach had made representations to other Ministers to have friends appointed to other State boards, for example, Des Richardson to the Aer Lingus board, and Joe Burke who was listed as the chairman of the Dublin Port Company, and David McKenna, who was appointed to the board of Enterprise Ireland. Mr Ahern said anyone he nominated to a State board, when another Minister was making an appointment, "had the knowledge, expertise and experience required".