RTE built a "house of lies" about the Co Mayo TD, Ms Beverly Cooper-Flynn, and subjected her to "trial by TV" which damaged her reputation and for which she required "swingeing compensation", the High Court was told yesterday.
Claims by RTE that the TD, when selling certain investment products, assisted people to evade tax and hide "hot" money were denied and were untrue, Mr Garrett Cooney SC, for the TD, said.
Opening Ms Cooper-Flynn's action alleging libel by RTE in a series of programmes, Mr Cooney said his client was repeatedly held up as a "pariah" by RTE to hundreds of thousands of people and the anxiety and distress she had felt were acute, Mr Garrett Cooney SC.
Counsel told the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Morris, and a jury, that the TD failed to get an apology or retraction and swingeing compensation was the only remedy to ensure justice for his client and vindication of her constitutional rights.
Ms Cooper-Flynn, of Westport Road, Castlebar, is suing RTE; journalist Mr Charlie Bird; and a retired farmer, Mr James Howard, of Wheaton Hall, Drogheda, Co Louth.
She claims she was libelled in broadcasts on RTE between June 19th, 1998, and July 1st, 1998, and that words used on the programmes meant she had instigated a scheme, the object of which was the evasion of the lawful payment of tax, and thereby caused loss to the revenues of the State. The defence denies the claims.
The court heard Ms Cooper-Flynn joined the National Irish Bank in 1989. ail vacancy caused when her father, Padraig Flynn, became an EU Commissioner but was not then elected. When she was elected to the Dail in 1997, she was given leave of absence from NIB which is continuing.
In 1991, NIB formed an association with Clerical Medical Insurance Ltd, and CMI Personal Portfolio was introduced. This was a perfectly legitimate investment and attracted a minimum tax liability for the investor, counsel said. The "heart" of the court case was the allegation to the contrary.
In early 1998, Ms Cooper-Flynn received a phone call from Mr Bird inquiring about the business affairs of a businessman living in Castlebar, Mr Cooney said. She replied she knew nothing about the man.
Later, Mr Bird contacted Ms Cooper-Flynn and made no allegation about her. She was later approached by George Lee, RTE's economics correspondent, about the general workings of NIB. At that time, neither posed a single allegation of wrongdoing against Ms Cooper-Flynn.
In the summer of 1998 RTE broadcast a series of programmes which had a devastating effect on Ms Cooper-Flynn's reputation and good name. RTE said that when she sold the products she helped people evade tax and, as they put it, to hide "hot" money. E and Mr Bird broadcast about Ms Cooper Flynn was untrue.
On June 19th, 1998, Ms Cooper-Flynn was leaving the Dail to go a Fianna Fail conference in Ballyconnell, Co Cavan, when she received a call from Mr Bird that he and RTE were investigating her personally and were on the point of broadcasting allegations. She said she could not talk to him there and then.
Forty-five minutes later, Mr Bird called again, saying he had a letter to deliver to her concerning allegations about how she sold the CMI products. She said she could not talk to him then. She later found the letter pushed under her hotel room door in Ballyconnell.
The letter said it was giving Ms Cooper-Flynn 48 hours' notice of a programme which Mr Bird was going to present on RTE. The programme was broadcast less than 24 hours later.
What transpired was "trial by TV", Mr Cooney said. E broadcast the most defamatory and untrue statements about Ms Cooper-Flynn. None of the customers had been identified by name in the letter. Ms Cooper-Flynn had no way of checking records or dealing with the allegations.
Mr Justice Morris and the jury were shown recordings of five television broadcasts and one radio broadcast concerning the allegations.
Ms Cooper-Flynn could not identify the farmer on one of the E broadcasts. She was later told it was Mr James Howard, a retired farmer from Co Meath, now living in Co Louth. Ms Cooper-Flynn knew she had never done any business with Mr Howard.
The CMI documents demonstrated Mr Howard had dealt with another person employed in the same capacity as Ms Cooper-Flynn. Mr Howard was the foundation from which RTE and Mr Bird built their "house of lies" against Ms Cooper-Flynn.
The hearing continues.