Beverley Flynn helped her father invest money from political donations, writes Colm Keena
LISTENING TO the former government minister and European commissioner Pádraig Flynn give evidence yesterday it was difficult not to think of the recent evidence of the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern.
Both men were senior ministers in governments in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Both dealt in large amounts of cash. Both have said they kept large amounts of cash in safes.
Both have given evidence that they mixed personal income and political donations, and used political donations for personal use. And both have told the tribunal they did not keep records of the large (often cash) transactions, they were involved with.
A different element in Flynn's story is the involvement of his daughter Beverly Flynn in helping him invest money which, by his own account, included money given to him as political donations.
The tribunal's interest arises from a payment by the one-time promoter of the Quarryvale project, Tom Gilmartin.
He visited Flynn in his ministerial office in May 1989, and gave Flynn a cheque for £50,000. Gilmartin says the cheque was for Fianna Fáil. At the time Flynn was party treasurer. Gilmartin says it was not a bribe.
Flynn said yesterday he felt no discomfort when accepting a cheque made out to cash from a developer. No receipt was issued.
Gilmartin told party officials in 1990 that he had made a £50,000 donation to Fianna Fáil and a party inquiry was held, because it had no record of receiving the donation. No one contacted Flynn.
The cheque was lodged to an AIB non-resident account in the names of Flynn and his wife Dorothy in his home town of Castlebar, Co Mayo.
Flynn said yesterday that the money was given to him as a donation towards his personal political operation in the context of the pending general election. He said it was the largest contribution he received in his political career.
The bank records show the money was lodged on June 8th, 1989. Other lodgements over the following weeks brought the balance to £71,729. Flynn said all the lodgements would have been political donations.
In October and November 1989 there were two £25,000 withdrawals from the account. Flynn agreed yesterday the evidence indicated the withdrawals were in cash.
He said the first would have been used to defray election expenses. The second withdrawal on November 20th, he said, was placed in his safe, where there would have been other amounts of cash.
Three days later Flynn gave £25,000 in cash to his daughter to be invested in three different NIB-sponsored funds. At the time Ms Flynn was an employee of NIB. Prior to the investment being made, she gave her father the standard NIB investment advice, including advice that the investment would not be disclosed to any taxing authority.
In 1990 a further £10,000 in cash was given by Flynn to his daughter to add to his investment. In December 1993 Flynn gave his daughter a further £33,000, possibly cash, which she invested for him with the Chemical Bank of New York.
In November 1996 the proceeds from these investments were lodged with Beverley Flynn's assistance to an NIB account in Co Monaghan, using the Flynns' address in Brussels.
During the period these transactions took place Beverley Flynn was working for NIB. She was first elected to the Dáil in 1997 but was expelled from Fianna Fáil in 2000 after she failed in a libel case against RTÉ, which had reported that she had facilitated tax evasion while working with NIB. Last week she was accepted back into the party. Her father returns to the witness box today.