I was shaken for the whole day. I was furious about it.

I might have been temporarily furious, but I do not think I was shaken. Perhaps I was shaken, not stirred.

In a long career in public life I have never been accused of this kind of thing and have never behaved in that way. How dare RTE suggest it and not even apologise?

We know that the Senator has not. I did not recieve an apology, but perhaps I did not look for one. Errors were obviously made and RTE should have the decency to apologise for them to all those to whom it wrote in the wrong.

The Senator is very hard to shake.

I have listened with interest to the views of Members concerning the revelations last night in the "RTE Investigates" programme. It is literally the talk of the country today and people are surprised, shocked and angry. Where investigations are necessary, I am sure they will be conducted and presumably, should prosecutions be necessary, they will follow in due course.

We need to recognise that the spotlight being shone on local authorities and their members across the country should, perhaps, be redirected closer to home. The political example must be set from Leinster House, not from council chambers. Many years ago, the former Tánaiste, Mr. Dick Spring spoke about a cancer in the political system. He was speaking about a particular individual at the time and expressed his views about that gentleman. However, there remains a cancer in the political system - the cancer of cronyism. We saw it in this House about 18 months ago when an attempt was made to use the House for political purposes. We see it in the unreformed quango system, the quangos which were supposed to be gotten rid of but which still exist, the appointments to those quangos, or judicial appointments in respect of which people in the Law Library know months in advance who is going to be appointed to what position. We see it in the distribution of grants and funds in various schemes across the country. Let us not pretend. Cronyism is part of the political system and political culture and always has been. We must decide whether we want to continue with that type of broken, dysfunctional politics, or whether we need a new start. While the problems at local authority level must be examined, we must start much closer to home and the buck stops with us and the Government. There has been mention of the need for an anti-corruption Bill. I am sure that is somewhere in the ether waiting to be passed and the sooner the better. Everything about the political system, the appointments system, patronage and favouritism is as bad now as it ever was. That is the real cancer and cronyism. When the small-time county councillors have disappeared off the public airwaves, the substantial matter of cronyism and its cancerous effect on politics will still have to be tackled. That is where we must start, at the top. We need to put new legislation in place. An anti-corruption Bill would be a step in the right direction, but the culture needs to change. The culture of the public needs to change also. Substantial findings have been made about certain politicians, yet the public decides to re-elect them. It sometimes make me wonder. We need a very new culture in Irish politics.

I refer to the "RTE Investigates" programme last night. Some of the evidence presented to us was horrifying.

It was damning and representative of the very worst moral and ethical standards in public life in Ireland or elsewhere. The programme has done some service in shining a light on this darkest recess of the political system. However, in the midst of the justifiable fury it has caused, it must not be forgotten that the vast majority of councillors are honourable and just people who do not deserve to be held to account for the deplorable actions of a small number of individuals. Councillors - I have received telephone calls from three or four of them from various parts of the country - who have dedicated much of their lives to serving the public with the utmost integrity and endeavour, many of whom are working for their communities on a full-time basis with modest rewards, are waking up this morning knowing that they will face unwarranted criticism and suspicion from their communities because of the shameful actions of those witnessed by Members on national television last night. I received telephone calls from a couple of them after the programme had been broadcast last night. However, Members cannot allow the unlawful and immoral actions of a few to sully the reputation and honour of the many councillors who hold office throughout the country. It is incumbent on them to issue a message of support to councillors and a message to the public that they should not devalue and sour the work of their representatives by tarnishing them with the same brush as those who were exposed last night. In the interests of the huge majority of upstanding, hard-working councillors, those who last night brought such shame to their vocation should face the full rigour of the law. Some of them think they have conveniently sidestepped the juggernaut of public opinion and culpability by resigning from their parties, but they should know that that is not enough.

The Senator's point has been made.

It is not enough to resign from their parties and continue to poison the system by retaining their council seats. They should resign in a display of repentance and allow more worthy individuals to join the ranks of honourable and admirable councillors throughout the country.