Ulster Unionist peer Lord Laird has accused Taoiseach Bertie Ahern of complacency about what he termed "white-collar terrorism" and "money laundering" and suggested he should resign.
During a House of Lords debate on Northern Ireland yesterday, Lord Laird again used parliamentary privilege to make allegations about the republican links of Irish financier Phil Flynn and journalist Frank Connolly.
Lord Laird called for further examination of Mr Flynn's activities and described the former chairman of Bank of Scotland in Ireland as a "friend and associate" of the Taoiseach. He also claimed that Mr Flynn, a one-time vice-chairman of Sinn Féin, "played a role as chairman of Bank of Scotland (Ireland), while at the heart of government in the Republic, and was also an adviser to Sinn Féin/IRA on business organisation, including finance". Mr Flynn resigned from the Government's committee for decentralising the civil service in February after being interviewed by the Criminal Assets Bureau.
Detectives raided Mr Flynn's house after it was discovered he was a non-executive director of a company under investigation. He has categorically denied any involvement in money laundering and no charges have been brought against him. The BBC quoted the Bank of Scotland last night saying it was unaware of any investigation or planned investigation into its Belfast loan book, as claimed by Lord Laird.
The peer suggested such an investigation was already under way, declaring: "My only hope is that the Police Service of Northern Ireland fraud squad will get total access to all papers relating to money-lending by that office."
Lord Laird said he could think of no issue with "such far-reaching potential for undermining the democratic process than the continuing white collar terrorism of Sinn Féin/IRA in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic". He went on: "I refer to the scandal of IRA money laundering and their sleepers and agents, secreted among the population in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and here in Britain." In a direct attack on the Taoiseach he said: "The response of the Irish Prime Minister, Mr Ahern, to this still remains totally complacent."
Claiming "it appears that Mr Ahern had secret meetings recently with Sinn Féin/IRA", Lord Laird continued: "In the light of these revelations, altogether apart from the appropriateness of such contacts, many of us will wonder whether its purpose was to emphasise the requirements of constitutional politics or to receive further demands of a non-constitutional organisation.
"Any other prime minister who had knowingly allowed a senior member of a revolutionary movement, known to be associated with terrorists, into a position of massive influence would by now have resigned." He said Mr Ahern had not just compromised but totally forfeited any claim he might have had to consider himself an honest broker.
Mr Connolly told the BBC that Lord Laird's claim that he had travelled to Colombia on a false passport was absurd and inaccurate.