LABOUR MEP NESSA Childers has called on Fianna Fáil to lodge a complaint with the Gardaí over a payment of IR£50,000 made to former minister and EU Commissioner Pádraig Flynn.
The recently released Mahon Tribunal report found that Flynn had “wrongfully and corruptly sought a substantial donation” from developer Tom Gilmartin for the Fianna Fáil party in 1989, and then used the money to buy a farm for his wife. Flynn has rejected the findings.
This week, the Sunday Times claimed that the Criminal Assets Bureau and Gardaí could not prove that Flynn obtained the donation by deception or fraud without first receiving a complaint from Fianna Fáil.
A spokesman for the party said the matter was due to be discussed at the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting next week, but did not reveal whether the party intended to make a complaint to the authorities.
“Fianna Fail must immediately make an official complaint to the Garda Síochána about Pádraig Flynn’s theft of IR€50,000,” Childers said. “This is a very clear test of Fianna Fail’s commitment to fighting white-collar crime.”
In a statement, she described as “sickening” the fact that no action had been taken on the Moriarty Tribunal’s findings and insisted that the same “go-slow approach” not be repeated with the Mahon Tribunal.
Childers criticised the treatment of white collar crime in Ireland: “Of course we need to protect people from the threat of assaults, rapes and robberies but white collar crime has never been treated in the same way as street crime,” she said.
“This must change for once and for all. All institutions of the state have a role to play and if we need a constitutional change I am sure the Irish people will be happy to vote for it.”
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