Outspoken O’Flynn rejoins FF on council
Cllr Ken O’Flynn, who in 2010 topped the council’s conference expenses league table, claiming over €14,330, dismissed accusations of hypocrisy, insisted there was “no secret deal”, and said he looked forward to rejoining his party colleagues.
He accepted that he attended several conferences at the time, but said he did so to “educate himself and for the benefit of the city, and the benefit of his constituents”.
“But conference exp-enses are a luxury the city can no longer afford. We could spend that money in a better way now.”
Mr O’Flynn lost the whip in Jan 2012 for voting against the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and Labour pact the previous month on the city’s 2012 budget. He remained a member of the party. He has spent the last year sitting on the council’s Independent benches.
Joe O’Callaghan, Fine Gael’s whip on the council, said Mr O’Flynn’s “bonding” with his Fianna Fáil colleagues was either “a joke or a Damascus-like conversion in a Syrian setting”, branding it as “cynical posturing to deceive the public”.
“Fianna Fáil and Cllr Ken are fooling no one. He justifies his return by saying, ‘they voted against conference expenses’.
“Will he now confirm that neither he nor his Fianna Fáil colleagues will be attending any more conferences?
“It will indeed be Ireland’s loss if they decide not to — I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Party leader Micheál Martin extended the first invitation to Mr O’Flynn to rejoin the party’s council group last July.
A second invitation was extended by the party’s leader on the council, Terry Shannon, on Nov 1.
Mr O’Flynn said he took advice from friends, family, supporters, and constituents before writing to Mr Shannon yesterday accepting the invitation.
His return to the Fianna Fáil fold follows the party’s decision to break with the decades-old pact agreement and vote against the 2013 budget last month.
Crucially, the party opposed the payment of conference fees to councillors — one of several areas Mr O’Flynn has spoken out about in recent months.
He will resume his seat with his party colleagues at Monday’s first full council meeting of 2013.
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