Beverley Cooper-Flynn, Disappointed at outcome
The Fianna Fáil parliamentary party has, after a four hour meeting, voted to remove the party whip from the TD, Beverley Cooper-Flynn. Deputies leaving the meeting said that there had been an overwhelming show of hands in favour of the motion which had been moved by the Chief Whip, Seamus Brennan, and seconded by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowen.
During the protracted meeting Ms Cooper-Flynn made a long speech again asking for more time to consider the question of an appeal on the High Court judgement in her libel action against RTÉ. She dealt in considerable length with aspects of the case and reasserted her innocence saying that she had not encouraged any one to evade tax. Ms Cooper-Flynn also argued that the motion before the meeting could be prejudicial to any appeal she might make.
However, after contact between lawyers for each side, senior counsel for Fianna Fáil told the party that he did not accept that argument. In his speech to the meeting, the Taoiseach said that the result of the High Court action could not be ignored. He said that he was not making any judgement on guilt or innocence but he was putting forward the view that the party and the Government should be allowed to get on with their work without the focus being on the Cooper-Flynn issue.
About 40 members of the parliamentary party spoke during the meeting. Sources said that at least half of them appealed to the Mayo deputy to voluntarily resign the whip. About seven deputies and senators spoke against the motion, many of them from Western constituencies. In the end the motion was carried by an overwhelming show of hands.
Beverly Cooper-Flynn has said that she is "disappointed" at the outcome of today's parliamentary party meeting. Ms Cooper-Flynn said that she had set out her case to the best of her ability and that she felt that many in the party were supportive of her, but that it came down to pragmatism. She added that if the people of Mayo continued to support her, then she would be honoured to represent them.
