The Minister for Industry and Commerce at the time, Seán Lemass, granted a mining licence to the politicians Michael Comyn and Bob Briscoe.
An inquiry was launched due to Patrick McGilligan of Cumann na nGaedheal accusing Lemass of favouring members of the Fianna Fáil political party.
[11] Another tribunal was set up in 1943 after allegations that advance information was made available selectively when the Great Southern Railway and the Dublin United Transport Company were merged and nationalized to form Córas Iompair Éireann, allowing shareholders to make massive profits.
[13] The next major political scandal happened in 1946 when Dr. Francis Ward, a prominent politician from Monaghan and holder of a pig producing licence from Seán Lemass's department, had the following allegations put forward against him by a constituency rival, Dr Patrick McCarvill; When an inquiry was established it found all the allegations against him false, but found him guilty of tax evasion.
[11] The last major corruption case in the 1940s occurred in 1947 when a tribunal was called to look into the sale of Locke's Distillery in Kilbeggan, County Westmeath.
This sale attracted a lot of attention at the time due to a worldwide shortage of Whiskey, and with its extensive stocks, several foreign syndicates were interested.
A politician from Laois, Oliver J. Flanagan, accused the Taoiseach at the time Éamon de Valera, Seán Lemass and Justice Minister Gerald Boland of political favouritism and abuse of power in relation to the sale.
[13] This was proved in the following few years when Charlie Haughey, the Minister for Finance and Liam Lawlor, a TD from the Lucan area, both received planning permission for huge housing estates on land in which they owned.
The year before, Tully was also accused of “Tullymandering”, a take off of gerrymandering, which involves rearranging electoral boundaries to benefit a particular political party.
This tribunal was brought into being to investigate these matters and also his apparent improper relationship with a certain building contractor, Bobby Farrelly, and when the trial was over, he was cleared of any wrongdoing.
The government were accused, by Labour TD Pat Rabbitte, of providing export insurance to him in respect of his sale of beef in Iraq and in effect, giving him favourable treatment.
When this was made public, the tribunal attempted to initiate criminal proceedings against both men, but failed when it was judged that Haughey would not get a fair trial due to prejudicial comments by Tánaiste Mary Harney.
Despite its steep costs, the tribunal has also yielded some benefits, with about €50 million collected by the Revenue Commissioners and the Criminal Assets Bureau in light of information it has garnered.
As a result of the tribunal George Redmond, who devised a system that if a new planning application was made without his assistance, the service charges and levies would be fixed at least 100% more than with his help, and Ray Burke, who opened and maintained offshore bank accounts in the Isle of Man for the purpose of receiving and concealing corrupt payments, have served prison sentences for tax evasion and Liam Lawlor has served three prison sentences for non-co-operation with the inquiry.
Some of the proposed laws include; Prison terms of up to 10 years and unlimited fines on any member of government, or civil servant, who commits an act of corruption.
On 3 October 2006 Ahern made a 15-minute statement in Dáil Éireann defending his actions in taking loans totalling IR£39,000 (€50,000) from friends in Ireland and £8,000 (€11,800) as a gift from businessmen in Manchester in 1993 and 1994.
He was portrayed as a figure of hatred for both Protestant and Catholic historians, owing to his ambiguous and corrupt activities during the Reformation where "dissolved churches and lands became battlegrounds for profit and cultural hegemony".
When he was chosen to receive the license, there was major controversy as he was suspected of bribing Fine Gael government TD and Minister for Communications Michael Lowry.
He later defaulted on these loans due to the Global Recession and has since been unable to repay his debts, although he retired from his position with a pension of €4 million a year.
[39] Mick Wallace, an independent politician from Wexford, was revealed in 2012 to have had knowingly made false declarations to the authorities regarding payment of VAT.
[41] Michael Collins, a politician from Limerick, hit the headlines in 2003 when it was revealed that he had set up a bogus offshore account to evade paying tax.