Beverly Flynn: Still a Fianna Fáiler

Enjoying the freedom of being an Independent, still having a zest for politics, Beverly Flynn is not fazed by the disbandment of Mícheál Ó Móráin's cumann in Castlebar. She talks to Eoin Ó Murchú

Beverly Flynn is proud of her Fianna Fáil roots. "I'm still a Fianna Fáiler," she boasts, "though being formally an independent does give me a freedom to raise specific issues that concern Mayo that I might not otherwise have.

"I was annoyed at first that I wasn't treated as a person in my own right, that I was some sort of clone of my father. That's far from being the case, but I had no hesitation in defending him when he was opportunistically attacked by Pat Rabbitte in the Dáil. Perhaps that annoyed some people in headquarters, but I don't regret it."

Beverly Flynn was expelled from the Fianna Fáil organisation, and not just from the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party, when she failed in her Supreme Court appeal on a libel action she took against RTÉ.

RTÉ had reported that, while working for National Irish Bank, Flynn had urged a farmer, James Howard, to avail of an offshore investment scheme with the avowed purpose of evading tax. Ironically, the court held that RTÉ's report was untrue on this point, but it also held that other witnesses substantiated a pattern of advice which meant that Beverly Flynn's reputation was not damaged by RTÉ's incorrect original report.

Party leader Bertie Ahern immediately moved to have Flynn expelled from the organisation, despite having endorsed her as a Fianna Fáil candidate in the 2002 election only a short while before.

"I think that was a step too far. If it was necessary to take any sanction against me," she said, "the party whip could have been removed for a period."

But she says that she doesn't feel bitter. "To be honest I've moved on. I think it was unfair. I think it was unfair that I was made a scapegoat by RTÉ for all the problems of the financial services sector, and that Fianna Fáil made me a scapegoat for all the problems the party faced arising from that. But there's no point in dwelling on the past."

However, she views the disbandment of the Mícheál Ó Móráin cumann in Castlebar as "shabby". "After all," she says, "these are people who voluntarily give of their time to the party. They nominated me back in 2002, and did headquarters really think that people would run away from me when I was expelled?

"They were consulted when I got the nomination," she says, "but there was no consultation when I was thrown out."

However, Flynn insists that she was not involved with the cumann and hadn't attended any of its meetings since last September, though she has been at meetings of the comhairle dáilcheantar (which remains undisbanded).

Nevertheless she sees the attack on the cumann as an attack on her, and as an effort to target her seat in the next election rather than try and tackle the seats held by Fine Gael or the non-Fianna Fáil independent, Jerry Cowley.

With her ability and experience she could have reasonably hoped for a ministerial career, but with her expulsion from the party surely there was no prospect of that. Why then did she bother to stay in politics?

"Nothing is forever, and who knows what the future might bring. Perhaps a new leader might bring in a new broom; perhaps Bertie Ahern might change his view. But I'm as enthusiastic about the political process now as ever I was.

"Indeed, as an independent I have a greater freedom to speak out about matters that concern me. For example, there has been a €2 billion underspend on the BMW (Border, Midlands and Western) region and the promises of the National Development Plan haven't been realised. As an independent I had the opportunity to move a motion in the Dáil on this issue, and extract a Government promise to tackle the deficit. I wouldn't have had that chance as a backbencher when any points I had to raise could only be raised in private party meetings."

She acknowledges, however, that being outside the loop sometimes makes it difficult to get a hearing for a particular argument, but she says that depends on the amount of energy a TD has to put into the job.

"And I have plenty of energy," she says.

She hasn't entirely abandoned her ministerial hopes, but that's a long way down the line if it ever happens.

In the meantime, she has lots to say about political issues that affect Mayo, and she's determined to make the space for herself to say them.

For example, there is a world of difference between the theoretical commitment of the Government to Western Development and the implementation of the ideas of the National Development Plan.

The Government just hasn't put the money where its mouth is. "But who speaks for Mayo?" she asks. "The Opposition are only interested in scoring points. I'm engaged in constructive criticism.

"And in that regard, while I remain a Fianna Fáil person at heart and loyal to the Programme for Government on the basis of which I was elected, I cannot be taken for granted.

"Bertie Ahern is wrong if he thinks that he could just row me back in if he needed the numbers and cast me off again when he didn't."

And she says she won't be content with a few gestures. "I expect the government to announce soon a commitment to go ahead with spending €365m on the Western rail corridor. I'll welcome that, but in the context of a shortfall of two billion in investment spending in the BMW region I won't lose my head about it."

Health, too, is an area she's keeping an eye on. "Mayo general hospital is not under threat in the Hanley report as it has been presented so far, and might even get an improvement in the range of services available from it, but I'll be keeping a close eye on the roll out of phase two to make sure of that.

"What I am most concerned about," she goes on, "is that the Breast Check programme has still not been introduced to Mayo. It was promised back in 2002; it's now a year behind schedule already for its introduction, and it could be another two years before it does come in. For five months, a decision about this has been sitting on Mary Harney's desk – but still no decision."

She says that this is something she feels particularly strongly about "as a woman" and feels that too many promises are left unfulfilled because sufficient pressure isn't there to make sure they get fulfilled.

"Up to about 1994 there were four or five ministers in the West: Mayo, Sligo, Roscommon, Longford, and so on. People saw that things got done, and Fianna Fáil benefited accordingly.

"But," she says, "there isn't the same clout there now, and the party has gone down accordingly. I was forced to become an independent, but there's perhaps half a dozen others elected on particular issues, like health or western development, to seats that Fianna Fáil should have been able to target."

She believes that Fianna Fáil headquarters is too Dublin-oriented.

"Mayo had a strong organisation with a thousand delegates turning up to nominate candidates. You can't ignore that sort of organisation without doing damage. Disbanding the Mícheál Ó Móráin cumann does nothing to strengthen the party in Mayo. The members can't be expelled under the constitution, so what does it achieve?"

And she insists that she still has her zest for politics.

"No, I believe what I am doing is useful and challenging. Who knows what the future holds, but I'm looking forward to the next election, to defending my seat and winning it back for the Fianna Fáil ideals I have always believed in."

Eoin Ó Murchú is the Eagraí Polaitíochta of RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta. He is writing here in a personal capacity.