Frank Flannery: Will he now submit himself to a public probing by the PAC?

In a deftly effective plunge of the political blade, veteran Labour Minister Ruairi Quinn avoided going for the kill, but left Fine Gael’s chief strategist Frank Flannery badly wounded and haemorrhaging credibility.

As controversy engulfed the now former Rehab director over reports he was paid by the charity to lobby ministers while occupying an influential backroom role in the Government, Mr Quinn’s remarks highlighted Mr Flannery’s perch at the very heart of power.

While declining to go as far as his Labour colleague Kathleen Lynch and declare Mr Flannery’s position “untenable”, the education minister offered an intriguing insight into how the ex-FG director of organisation does business.

“There is a corridor that ministers have offices on which is at the back of Government Buildings linked to Leinster House proper,” Mr Quinn told RTÉ.

“I would be in there at 8.30 in the morning on the day of a Cabinet meeting and I would meet him or I would see him walking past the odd time with, usually, Fine Gael advisors and I would have greeted him.

“He had spoken to me on different occasions about concerns they [Rehab] had over a change in the monies that were available to Rehab as a result of the introduction of the National Lottery but not in any kind of lobbying way to me.”

The image of Mr Flannery informally working the ministerial corridor as the Cabinet assembles for its weekly meeting was hardly likely to lessen the squall gathering around the former Rehab CEO, and within hours he had quit his roles in both the charity and Fine Gael.

Indeed, the cross-over entanglements of his professional life were singled out for attention by Ms Lynch, who, when asked if Mr Flannery should resign, said: “It is difficult to know which position we are talking about.”

PAC originally wanted to talk to Mr Flannery about his pension and connection to a firm Rehab chief Angela Kerins’ husband and brother are involved with, but the spotlight has now also shifted to his lobbying activities.

The resignation came as little surprise as the Rehab controversy has strained relations with the Taoiseach, and Enda Kenny has publicly distanced himself from Mr Flannery.

Remarks by Mr Flannery in 2009 that a coalition could be on the cards with Sinn Féin so enraged the grassroots and unnerved the parliamentary party that he was quickly dropped as director of elections.

It was a poor reward for the efforts Mr Flannery put in piecing the party back together as an effective political machine after it crashed to just 31 TDs in the 2002 general election.

If a handful of seats had fallen the other way in 2007, Mr Kenny could have cobbled together a rag-bag coalition with Labour, the Greens, and few independents, but Fianna Fáil took the election — and the blame for their mishandling of the economic meltdown they helped create.

And so Mr Kenny survived to fight another day — after the unpleasantness of the 2010 heave — and Mr Flannery was there by his side, checking off lists of constituencies and candidates, strong-arming TDs into sharing the votes with running mates, and always, relentlessly, talking up the chances of FG victory.

For such a heavy political hitter, Mr Flannery is surprisingly soft-spoken, but has enjoyed the ear of the Taoiseach.

Outwardly ever the optimist, his predictions of success became something of an in-joke in the 2011 campaign, with Mr Kenny once wryly remarking: “Frank Flannery has assured me we will take all seven seats in Mayo.”

Come election night, Fine Gael took four of the five seats in the Taoiseach’s home county, and the party came the closest it ever has to securing majority rule.

Officially demoted within FG, but still wielding considerable influence, Mr Flannery, who joined Rehab in 1973 and served as its CEO for a quarter of century, was a man of many hats.

Now, the Kenny loyalist who faithfully served Garrett Fitzgerald and played a key role in the three knife-edge elections of 1981-82, and who was more responsible than anyone for pumping steel back into Fine Gael’s spine after the 2002 disaster, has officially broken with the party.

Some ministers say he was cast aside by Mr Kenny as the Taoiseach feared the controversy dogging him all the way to his Washington DC St Patrick’s Day visit and beyond.

Others within the party claim Mr Flannery went for his own reasons as the Rehab whirlwind threatened to make the king of the backroom boys front-page news for weeks on end.

It seems that the arch-strategist lacked a viable survival strategy when he needed one most.

The big question now is: Will he submit himself to a public probing by the PAC? And if not: Are they gunning for him enough to attempt to try and compel him to appear?

Rehab says it is preparing a “full and frank” response to repeated PAC questioning, but, while it may be full, will it be Frank who does the talking?

The passage way between Leinster House and the ministerial corridor in the adjoining Government Buildings is known as ‘The Bridge’.

In order to escape the escalating Rehab controversy, metaphorically speaking, either Mr Flannery jumped, or was tossed, from that ministerial bridge to protect the Taoiseach from further awkward questioning.

Frank Flannery’s statement in full

I have informed the chairman of the Rehab Group board, Mr Brian Kerr, that I wish to step down as a director of the Rehab Group and any other group boards with immediate effect. It is a step that I undertake with real regret but I have come to the opinion that my involvement with the board is making the Rehab Group the subject of political controversy at this time.

I spent 34 years in the Rehab Group and retired in December 2006. I rejoined the board in 2011. The Rehab Group has played an enormously valuable role in Irish society for nearly 70 years and I wish it continued success for the future.

I have also informed the general secretary of Fine Gael, Mr Tom Curran, that I am stepping down as director of elections and as a trustee of the party as of today.

My involvement with Fine Gael related only to electoral strategy and organisation and I had no role in advising the Government.

Fine Gael has been mandated, along with the Labour Party, with the onerous task of turning the economy around after the deepest recession since 1929. I believe the Government, and Fine Gael in particular, is performing well and the economy is on the mend.

The party and the Taoiseach will continue to have my complete support and I will assist the party in any way I can as a private citizen and as a proud ordinary member of Fine Gael.