The McCracken Tribunal has presented the Government with a report of crystalline clarity. There is no climbing over the hills and dales of the English language to avoid saying things out plainly. The relevant papers will go to the DPP to see if Mr Haughey is to be prosecuted. The former Taoiseach "deliberately shrouded" Ben Dunne's gifts in secrecy. Much of Mr Haughey's evidence was "unacceptable" to the tribunal. Mr Michael Lowry, who left himself "vulnerable to all kinds of pressures from Dunnes Stores", set up offshore bank accounts to avoid tax. It is "an appalling situation" that a Minister and chairman of a parliamentary party can be seen to be "consistently benefiting from the black economy".
Judge and lawyers can do no more. What they have done, they did well. The sharp detective work which led the tribunal team through the maze of Mr Haughey's money-trail to the Cayman Islands has been matched only by the precision of Mr Justice McCracken's commentary and conclusions. Now it is over to the legislative and executive arms of the State.
That the relevant executive agencies will pursue their responsibilities is not in doubt. The DPP will have to consider whether Mr Haughey's dishonesty warrants his prosecution under the Tribunals Acts. And the Revenue, it may be assumed, are already active in both Mr Lowry's and Mr Haughey's cases. It is also likely that the Ansbacher accounts can yield up further information on other tax-evaders, although no other politicians figure amongst these.
What will be the response from the Dail and from the Government? If there is any comfort for the politicians as a genre in the report it must be its declaration that no evidence has been found of political impropriety, of favours sought or done either by Mr Haughey or Mr Lowry. But it is a modest comfort. The question remains: how much has been revealed and how much remains unknown of this sordid crossover between politicians and big business? Mr Des O'Malley cut to the point yesterday. Mr Haughey's lavish lifestyle has gone on for decades. We have learned how it was sustained over a relatively brief period. So how was it funded over the rest of his political career? And did any of his acolytes learn from their master how to convert political power into ready cash?
The Taoiseach's response has been positive - as it ought to be. He proposes a public ethics commission which will investigate any accusations of public impropriety. The Attorney General has already begun work on the proposal and Mr Ahern believes it can be in force by the end of October. In addition Mr Ahern is considering a second tribunal and this will be discussed by the Government this week. It must be highly likely that a second tribunal will be called into being although there will be a variety of views around the Cabinet table as to its terms of reference. Probity, the pursuit of high standards and the rooting out of crookedness will be the order of the day when the Dail reassembles. Inevitably, one wonders how much of this would have happened were it not for Sam Smyth's revelations in the Irish Independent and the subsequent revelation by this newspaper's Finance Editor that a prominent Fianna Fail figure had received more than £1m from Mr Dunne. The reviled press has done its work well too.