LABOUR MEP Nessa Childers says she has formally appealed to the European Commission to cease payment of the EU pension being paid to former Commissioner Pádraig Flynn.
Childers’ move follows the publication of the Mahon Tribunal report on Thursday morning.
The Tribunal said Flynn had “wrongly and corruptly” sought a IR£50,000 payment from the developer Tom Gilmartin back in 1989. Gilmartin had told the Tribunal he believed the payment would “ease or remove obstacles” regarding his proposed shopping centre development at Quarryvale, adding that he believed the money was for the Fianna Fáil party rather than a personal payment to Flynn.
However, the Tribunal found that the payment was used for Flynn’s own benefit.
In a statement yesterday, Flynn said he ‘absolutely rejects’ the Tribunal’s findings. “During my lifetime of involvement in politics I have never sought not have I ever received a corrupt payment,” he said. “I absolutely reject any such finding of this Tribunal in that regard.”
Yesterday, Nessa Childers formally requested that the Commission cut off Flynn’s EU pension, saying that under the Commission’s own code of conduct, former Commissioners must at all times behave with integrity or face being deprived of their pension.
“These rules should also be enforced retroactively,” she said,” and from now on only people of unquestioned integrity should be appointed as Commissioner.”
“In 1993 Pádraig Flynn retired from Irish politics and was Ireland’s European Commissioner until 1999. He would have a substantial pension arising from this time paid by European citizens.”
Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has proposed expelling Flynn from the party alongside former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and other FF politicians identified in the Mahon report. The proposals are being put before the party’s national executive next week.
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