REACTION:FORMER MINISTER and EU commissioner Pádraig Flynn has rejected the tribunal's finding that he corruptly accepted a payment of £50,000 from developer Tom Gilmartin.
In a short written statement issued from his Co Mayo home yesterday, he said: “During my lifetime of involvement in politics I have never sought nor have I ever received a corrupt payment.
“I absolutely reject any such finding of this tribunal in that regard.” The statement concluded by saying he would be making no further comment.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has recommended that Mr Flynn be expelled from the party following the adverse findings made against him. The matter will be considered at a special meeting of the party’s ard chomhairle next Friday.
The party confirmed yesterday that it will not seek the repayment of £50,000 (€63,500) from the former politician after the tribunal concluded the donation from Mr Gilmartin was intended for Fianna Fáil and was not – as Mr Flynn claimed – a personal political donation to him.
In all Mr Flynn, with his wife Dorothy, held a total of £150,000 in three bogus non-resident accounts between 1989 and the end of 1992, with a non-existent address in Chiswick, west London. Mr Flynn also received contributions of £8,000 from National Toll Roads in December 1992 and £3,000 from Davy Stockbrokers the previous month. He said they were political contributions for the November 1992 election.
However, the source of some £77,000 held in the account (all non-salary money) has never been discovered. The £150,000 held in the bogus non-resident account were the equivalent of three times a TD’s salary at the time.
Following the public disclosure in 1998 of the secret £50,000 payment from Mr Gilmartin, Mr Flynn paid a total of €21,650 to the Revenue Commissioners in gift tax, interest and penalties.
The Office of the Revenue Commissioners was one of four bodies to which the report was sent by Government. It is not known if Mr and Mrs Flynn have made a settlement with Revenue in relation to the funds held in the bogus non-resident accounts.
Yesterday, Labour MEP Nessa Childers formally requested the European Commission to suspend Mr Flynn’s pension. He was commissioner between 1993 and 1999 and has a pension of about €50,000 from the commission, or a quarter of the annual salary of over €200,000.
In all Mr Flynn’s political pensions amount to some €140,000 a year. He receives a ministerial pension of about €51,000; a TD’s pension of about €40,000; and his commissioner’s pension.
In its final report, the tribunal has stated: “Mr Flynn wrongfully and in the circumstances corruptly sought a donation from Mr Gilmartin for the FF party.”
