Beverley Cooper-Flynn, Sided with FF following last night's vote
The Mayo Dáil Deputy, Beverley Cooper-Flynn, has reaffirmed her loyalty to Fianna Fáil, despite being voted out of the parliamentary party at the end of a four-hour meeting last night. A motion to withdraw the party whip from Ms Cooper-Flynn was carried by what was described as an "overwhelming" show of hands. Within an hour of losing the party whip, Beverley Cooper-Flynn walked into the Government lobbies to help vote down a Labour private members' motion on the establishment of a Garda Authority.
The coalition will be hoping that is a pattern that will repeat itself for whatever life the Government has left. For, with the removal of the whip from the Mayo Deputy, the Government is now depending on the votes of four independents and three former members of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party to keep it in power. During his party's four-hour meeting on Ms Cooper-Flynn's position, the Taoiseach made his position very clear. He was not making any judgement of guilt or innocence, he said, but the Government should be allowed to get on with their work without a daily focus on the Beverley Cooper-Flynn issue.
In turn, she re-asserted her innocence, saying that she had not encouraged anyone to evade tax and she again sought time to consider an appeal. Under the terms of the motion, the Mayo Deputy can return to the parliamentary fold if she wins an appeal on a substantive issue. She has two weeks to decide whether she will take that course of action.
