Ireland's era of government by stroke, of political leadership which admingled power, money, connections, inside information and favours has its nemesis today. Or so it would be comforting to believe. Mr Justice McCracken's report on the Dunnes Stores saga will be a landmark document. The evidence put before it in the dramatic days of early July was stark and unqualified. Never before in the unsatisfactory history of such inquiries into public life in Ireland has there been evidence of comparable clarity and import.
The evidence has been so clear that few participants or close observers are likely to find surprises in the factual content of Judge McCracken's report. Speculation and interest will focus on the conclusions which he sets down, the interpretations which he draws from what has been admitted and the views and recommendations - if any - which he expresses. But today's publication of the Tribunal report will represent only the opening phase of the critical and farreaching debate which must follow. The testing of the politicians' resolve will begin when the Dail meets in special sitting to discuss the report. Then we will know fairly rapidly whether those who lead and direct the main political parties are committed to ending the debasement of public life and political authority which has been revealed.
The issue of relations between politicians and their financial benefactors comes to the doorsteps of all the major parties. Substantial sums flowed from Ben Dunne to both Fine Gael and Labour parties while Fianna Fail as such received no donations during the period in question. Mr Dunne's largesse was going directly to the party leader, Mr Haughey. But while all the political parties are in the frame it is Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats who are in Government. And it is Fianna Fail's former leader who has been revealed as being personally on the take from Mr Dunne. There is no comparison between donations which go to party coffers and those which go directly into individual politicians' bank accounts.
It falls to the present leader of Fianna Fail, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern to decide where matters go from here. And he can be in no doubt about the especially heavy onus which rests on him. He is Mr Haughey's successor in office at one remove. He leads a party which acclaimed Mr Haughey and which expelled those who warned against him and what he stood for. He heads a Government many of whose members were advanced under Mr Haughey's leadership.
In the course of the election campaign Mr Ahern was at pains to emphasise the new Fianna Fail's break with the past. There would be no room in the party, he declared, for anyone who tried to barter political influence for monetary reward. The electorate probably took Mr Ahern at his word on that. Were it otherwise it is unlikely that Fianna Fail would now be in Government. Mr Ahern's responsibilities - or problems - exist at three levels, at very least. He has to decide how to go forward from the McCracken report on Mr Haughey's affairs. Who else bankrolled him over the years and under what circumstances? What mechanisms are necessary to examine and determine these questions? Secondly, he and his Government have to put in place an effective and credible set of safeguards to regulate relationships between politicians and would-be donors for the future. And he has to address the problem of his Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Ray Burke who has admitted receiving £30,000 from a Dublin builder. Mr Burke's explanation of the circumstances has been threadbare and brazen. If it is not dealt with satisfactorily, fully and openly by Mr Ahern many will wonder what has changed in Fianna Fail.