Beverley Flynn

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Beverley Flynn^[1] (Irish: Beverley Ní Fhloinn; born 9 June 1966) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician, one of five TDs representing the constituency of Mayo. She is the daughter of former Fianna Fáil politician, Pádraig Flynn, who once famously described her as a "class act".^[2]

She first stood unsuccessfully for election as the Fianna Fáil candidate in the Mayo West June 1994 by-election. The by-election was caused by the appointment of her father Pádraig Flynn as European Commissioner, and was won by Michael Ring of Fine Gael. She was first elected to Dáil Éireann in the 1997 general election, as a member of the Fianna Fáil party.

She resigned from the party in 1999, and was expelled in April 2001, in connection with allegations that she had encouraged tax evasion while an employee of National Irish Bank. She was allowed to rejoin Fianna Fáil again before the 2002 general election, but was again expelled after losing a libel action on the matter in 2004. A cumann of the Fianna Fáil party that had continued to support Flynn was disbanded by the party headquarters. In 2003, given that her marriage to John Cooper had ended sometime previously, he requested that the media refer to her as Beverley Flynn. She successfully contested the 2007 general election as an independent where she was elected on the eighth count.

[edit] Litigation

RTÉ pursued a bankruptcy action against Flynn, following her failure to pay the €2.4 million in costs arising from her failed libel action against the station, according to RTÉ's broadcaster, Marian Finucane on her programme of 16 June 2007. Flynn had alleged that she was libelled in six RTÉ broadcasts in 1998, which reported that she had encouraged tax evasion when she was an employee of National Irish Bank. The court found against her, ruling that she had not been libelled and the RTÉ's claims were correct. She also owes a further substantial sum to James Howard, whom she also sued unsuccessfully and she has to discharge her own legal costs arising from this case.

When the bankruptcy action against her opened in the High Court on 18 June 2007, her lawyers were granted a postponement to allow her to challenge the constitutionality of legislation which disqualifies bankrupted persons from Dáil membership. Lawyers for RTÉ accused Flynn of embarking on a "litigious frolic in her own interest".^[3] She subsequently abandoned plans to challenge the legislation.

On 24 June 2007, Flynn announced that she had reached a final settlement with RTÉ, paying some €1.24million.^[4]^[5] Because the final settlement fell short of the original €2.4m, RTÉ had to absorb the difference. This created a major outcry from the general public, media and by some TD's that this was a major abuse of public money^{[citation needed]} as RTÉ is mainly funded by the TV License Fee.

She was readmitted to the Fianna Fáil party at a meeting of its National executive on 3 April 2008.^[6]