The President of the European Parliament, Mr Pat Cox, yesterday accused politicians who received backhanders of having "prostituted our Republic".
In Waterford yesterday campaigning for a Yes vote in the Nice Treaty referendum, the Independent Munster MEP acknowledged that the interim report by Justice Flood had made the Irish public angry.
"There is fully-fledged righteous and proper anger. The Flood report has a long list of payments with corrupt written beside them, as well as a long list of obstructions to the tribunal.
"To find that people who had the privilege to fill that office, including a former foreign affairs minister, have prostituted our Republic, has caused anger and I share that anger."
Mr Cox was in Waterford to speak to the city's Chamber of Commerce and to address students at Waterford Institute of Technology