The new Fianna Fáil frontbench

MICHEÁL MARTIN remains the front-runner to be the next Fianna Fáil leader, with the number of TDs publicly declaring they will support him in tomorrow’s vote now in excess of 20.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen is on the cusp of defeating the Fianna Fáil rebellion after backbenchers lined up to show loyalty to their leader.

WILLIE O’DEA has become the latest senior Fianna Fáil figure to criticise the exodus of ministers from the party, saying the situation resembled “the flight out of Egypt”.

I REFER to the recent Irish Examiner article by Ryle Dwyer (Irish Examiner, January 1) on EU/IMF bailout.

I ONCE had a boss who didn’t believe in departing staff working out their notice.

“THEY gave me nothing and I owe them nothing” was how Jim McDaid summed up his relationship with Fianna Fáil back in 2007, just after he regained his seat on the party’s ticket in Donegal North East.

IN case any readers are confused why Fianna Fáil now feels Ivor Callely has “brought the party into disrepute” and should be ejected from the party and to consider resigning from the Oireachtas, when the most outrage it could muster against Beverly Flynn, who was proven in a court of law to have actively facilitated tax dodging, was to remove the party whip, they need to understand Fianna Fáil doesn’t depend on Callely’s vote to stay in office so he is expendable.

FIANNA Fáil’s Mary O’Rourke came under criticism from party colleagues for conceding during a radio interview that the party would not get into Government after the next election.

BUILDERS awarded school-building projects have been leaving sub-contractors unpaid, Tánaiste Mary Coughlan has revealed.

ELDERLY people are being subjected to unnecessary confusion and worry because of a new system to process medical cards for over-70s which was described yesterday as “a form of madness”.

HE left office as he had lived it – detached from reality and gilt wrapped in grandeur. For a man so used to gold- plated service at the taxpayers’ expense, John O’Donoghue proved well able to serve himself when he needed to.

THE huge expenses bill run up by John O’Donoghue during his time as Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism was indicative of the broader “carry on” in Fianna Fáil that was “fast and loose with the tax payers’ money”, according to Fine Gael.

CEANN Comhairle John O’Donoghue remained silent yesterday as further embarrassing details emerged of his excessive spending of taxpayers’ money on foreign trips including the Cannes Film Festival and Rugby’s Heineken Cup.

ANGRY farmers kept Government TDs in their sights yesterday in a fight to retain the scope of the REPS environmentally friendly grants payments.

THE Progressive Democrats got almost €500,000 in state funding last year, including €21,000 for “personal expenditure” for its four parliamentary party members, despite deciding to wind down the party in October.

SPORTS Minister Martin Cullen has said an undeclared payment made to him by a business in his constituency was above board.

Beverly Flynn’s decision to give up the €41,000 payment she has been receiving, having been elected as an independent to the current Dáil, is to be welcomed, but questions must be asked about her insistence over the weekend that she would continue to take the money.

Mayo TD Beverly Flynn has decided give up her Independent TD's allowance following a meeting with the Taoiseach, Brian Cowen.

MINISTERS last night ratcheted-up pressure on Fianna Fáil TD Beverly Flynn to surrender a €41,000 allowance intended for independent deputies.

IF talks about the national pay deal are to occupy some of Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s time this month he has another meeting that should not take too long.

ANYONE dismayed by the self-serving cynicism of our political system will be again outraged by the news that Mayo Fianna Fáil deputy Beverly Flynn will pocket an extra €40,000 a year tax free for the next three years.

Fianna Fáil's Beverly Flynn is calling on the Catholic Church to state once and for all that it is fully in favour of EU membership.

A right-wing Catholic newspaper which said a Lisbon Treaty 'No' vote was a vote for God, should have been banned from churches, politicians claimed today.

REBEL TD Finian McGrath last night branded his removal from a key Oireachtas committee as a “sinister attack on free speech”.

FORMER European commissioner Padraig Flynn insisted at the Mahon Tribunal yesterday the IR£50,000 he received from developer Tom Gilmartin was given as a personal political donation.

A GRATEFUL Beverly Flynn welcomed her return to her “natural home” in Fianna Fáil yesterday but admitted her political future rested with its new leader.

Minister Micheál Martin is being tipped for a high-profile position in the Department of Finance once Brian Cowen becomes Taoiseach on May 6.

Tánaiste Brian Cowen has today confirmed that he has submitted his nomination to become Taoiseach.

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has defended his decision to support the re-admittance of Beverly Flynn to the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party.

Controversial Mayo TD Beverly Flynn has been readmitted to the ranks of the Fianna Fáil party at the request of the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern.

Beverly Flynn was tonight readmitted into Fianna Fáil, four years after her expulsion when she lost a libel action over claims that she helped bank customers to evade tax.

HIS name is Harris, Eoghan Harris, and he’s on a one-man mission to put a sexy sizzle into the Seanad.

The gunman who killed eight people in a US shopping mall shooting “just snapped”, he said in a suicide note released today.

A NUMBER of government backbenchers last night expressed concerns that changes to the Government’s Community Childcare Subvention Scheme will cause hardship to working families.

The Government tonight announced the 17 Coalition TDs who will chair Oireachtas Committees and pick up €1.7m in extra pay over the next five years.

THE impression that there is one law for the powerful and another for the rest of us was reinforced yesterday when a judge said he would not jail a former Fianna Fáil TD for making a false declaration to the Revenue because he had already suffered humiliation, disgrace and the loss of his political career.

Legal proceedings involving independent TD Beverly Flynn were struck out at the High Court today bringing to an end the long running legal battle after her failed libel action against RTÉ.

Independent TD Beverly Flynn should move a step closer to re-joining Fianna Fáil today, with her legal battle against RTE expected to be formally struck out in the High Court.

INDEPENDENT TDs received almost €1.4 million of taxpayers’ money on top of their salaries over the past three years and did not have to explain how they spent it.

Nobody likes paying taxes, but there is a saying that taxes and death are two certainties in life.

Fianna Fáil members in Castlebar, Co Mayo, have failed to reach agreement on the proposed re-admission of Beverly Flynn to the party.

THE colourful Mayo TD Beverly Flynn yesterday began paying off the €1.25 million she owes RTÉ in order to avoid bankruptcy proceedings.

IT IS hard to imagine a more resounding expression of disappointment with the Government and with Aer Lingus than that revealed by today’s poll.