No offence intended to O'Rourke

Mr Flynn said he intended no offence to his former cabinet colleague Mrs Mary O'Rourke in his evidence on Thursday.

Mrs O'Rourke sent a legal team to the tribunal yesterday after Mr Flynn appeared to take issue with her earlier evidence.

Mr Paul McGarry, barrister, for Mrs O'Rourke, said Mr Flynn had told the tribunal he had no recollection of going to her office to invite her to a meeting with Mr Tom Gilmartin and other ministers in Leinster House.

Counsel said Mr Flynn had then said he would not have sympathised with Mrs O'Rourke on the death of her mother as this had occurred three months previously. He would have sympathised with her in the "immediate aftermath" of such an event.

But , Mr McGarry said that at no stage had Mrs O'Rourke said Mr Flynn had sympathised with her at this time. What she had said was that he had come across the corridor to her office and invited her, in a kind comment, to meet a man from her mother's county.

Mr Flynn responded that he had meant no offence to his former colleague. He asked that this be conveyed to her.

Mr McGarry then said that other witnesses who had no recollection of the alleged meeting had, when told about Mrs O'Rourke's evidence, accepted that some sort of a gathering could have occurred. Mr Flynn said to his recollection the meeting did not take place.