The reactions of senior politicians to reports that the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, and the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, may have compromised themselves by accepting the hospitality of the businessman, Mr Ulick McEvaddy, have been facile and more than a little disquieting. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, professes himself "unconcerned" and describes the affair as an "absolute storm in a teacup." For the Progressive Democrats, Mr Bobby Molloy spoke of the matter as being an "example of the silly season." The responses of both Mr Ahern and Mr Molloy patronise the public. Two senior Ministers have spent part of their summer holidays at a villa in the South of France as the guest of a gentleman who wants to persuade the Government to take a number of decisions in regard to State assets and regulations. Those decisions would work decidedly to his financial advantage. He wants the Government to oppose EU proposals on aircraft noise emissions and he is seeking permission to build a private second terminal at Dublin Airport. The Taoiseach and Mr Molloy see it as a piffling matter. After nearly two years of the most serious revelations concerning politicians and big business, these sentiments must signify either a breathtaking indifference to public sensitivities or a worrying loss of judgment. Mr Ahern and Mr Molloy have pointed to the strict adherence in the past by their two colleagues to the Ethics in Public Office Act. That is unchallenged, as is the probity of Mr McEvaddy. But the potential conflict of interests is stark. And the necessary appearance of disinterestedness in these issues must now lie beyond the claim of either Minister.
Both Ms Harney and Mr McCreevy have had exemplary records and neither is there any suggestion of impropriety per se on this occasion. To imply, however, that their previous behaviour in some way overrides any necessity to inquire into their acceptance of hospitality from Mr McEvaddy is to deal with the matter far less seriously than it should be treated. Mr Ahern has described the issue as being "a question of whether there is something to declare." Ms Harney and Mr McCreevy will, he said, "make that decision when they fill up the declarations for next January and other than that it's an absolute storm in a teacup." If that is all Mr Ahern can see in the situation, if he sees no call on his duty as Taoiseach beyond this superficial observation, one has to wonder if he has learned anything at all from the revelations of the past two years. The Fine Gael leader, Mr Bruton, has described his acceptance of a flight from west Cork to Omagh in Mr McEvaddy's helicopter last year as a donation to his party rather than a personal gift. While the regulations applying to politicians in opposition are less stringent than for those in power, Mr Bruton's attitude is hardly reassuring either. A man who has been Taoiseach, and may be again, should surely be aware of the necessity, as for Caesar's wife, that he must not only be innocent but also be above suspicion. The credibility of politicians in this State has been seriously tarnished by the revelations at the tribunals and elsewhere. They have the measures to remedy this situation in their own hands by dealing with such matters in an open and above-board way. Ms Harney and Mr McCreevy have acted with the poorest judgment in accepting holiday accommodation and hospitality in these circumstances. A Taoiseach who sincerely believed in what he has been saying for so long about public standards would have them both on the carpet - regardless of the consequences.