Former trade union leader and Sinn Féin vice-president Phil Flynn has accused Minister for Justice Michael McDowell of trying to criminalise him with "a concerted media campaign".
Mr Flynn resigned as a director of the Bank of Scotland following a Garda raid on his home during an investigation into money laundering after the Northern Bank robbery.
Speaking on TV3's The Political Party yesterday, Mr Flynn said there was a political motivation behind the Garda raid. "The reason why I was raided is because I was a republican," he told interviewer Ursula Halligan.
He accused the minister of being behind it. "I'm saying his people, and himself, have briefed journalists. When people have to resort to lies, that for example 'Slab' Murphy was a regular visitor to my home, that senior IRA people were regular visitors to my home, that's not true."
Mr Flynn asked: "Where's the other senior IRA people? What's their names? Who are they? When did they visit? It didn't happen.
"Can I say something to you? I would have no problem with 'Slab' Murphy visiting my home. I'd love to meet him. I haven't met him, I don't know him, but I would love to meet him."
He added that there had been a concerted media campaign to criminalise him. "Initially I thought the target was Bertie Ahern, because a lot of the stories would drag Bertie into them. I think the real target, I'm convinced, was Gerry Adams. The strategy is criminalise me, connect me with Gerry Adams."
Mr Flynn said that certain journalists were briefed. "I know because I have my own sources. They were being briefed and some of them told me.
"For example one of the stories, which is topical at the moment, is that 'Slab' Murphy, the alleged chief of staff of the IRA, was a regular visitor to my home. I asked a very well-known journalist where is this coming from. It's not true. I don't know the man.
"The only person who visited my home, and that wasn't too often, was Brian Keenan, who would've been a very prominent republican. For a period, when he was being treated for cancer at the Mater Hospital and I was facilitating his treatment and I also was helping with his bills."
Mr Flynn said he was conscious of a certain amount of surveillance. "I was aware that from time to time, I was being followed, you become aware of certain individuals popping up, and also cars, you'd know the cars.
"I'd been through this in a previous incarnation, way back in the '70s and '80s, and I'd had no surveillance since then. I had been an active member of Sinn Féin at that time."
Asked about his involvement with a small moneylending company in Cork he said: "If you knew me, you'd see nothing odd about it. I have helped hundreds of small people and small companies. I do it all the time. It's one of the things that fascinated the people who raided my house, when they went through the stuff - the extent to which I'd helped people. I know that because I've talked to other people about it."
Mr Flynn said that he expected to get more contracts from the State. "Why shouldn't I? I have State work currently. I'm working in the public services currently. There's no issue around that. I've been convicted of nothing."
