PARTY MEETING:ALMOST 100 Fianna Fáil members will decide next week whether to expel former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, former minister and EU commissioner Pádraig Flynn and three former councillors from the party.
When the party’s árd comhairle or national executive meets, its 95 members will debate Micheál Martin’s proposal that the former taoiseach “betrayed the trust” of the country. The committee of 95 will also decide on Mr Flynn after the party leader described his behaviour in keeping for himself a £50,000 donation to the party as “reprehensible” and a “disgrace”.
The conduct of former TD and councillor GV Wright, former senator and councillor Don Lydon and former councillor Finbar Hanrahan was “unbecoming” a member of the party, Mr Martin said.He said the central allegation against Mr Ahern was not sustained but the tribunal’s evidence and comments relating to him “are extremely serious”.
The report confirmed the “extent to which Bertie Ahern fell short of the standard of personal behaviour which is expected of the holders of high office”, he said.
The 95 members comprise: the 10-member officer board including Mr Martin, who met on Thursday evening and backed the proposal with abstentions from two on Mr Ahern; about 40 constituency delegates; the so-called committee of 20 elected by delegates at the party’s ardfheis; representatives from Ógra Fianna Fáil, according to a spokesman; representatives of the party’s councillors and parliamentary party representatives.
The party’s officer board includes the five vice-presidents and two honorary secretaries elected at the ardfheis and the two honorary treasurers. The vice-presidents are: former minister of state Áine Brady; Kathryn Byrne, Dublin South East, and Senator Mary White, who both abstained in the vote on Thursday; Lisa Chambers Mayo; Clare TD Timmy Dooley. The honorary secretaries are Mayo TD Dara Calleary and former Cavan-Monaghan TD Margaret Conlon and the two honorary treasurers are Limerick TD Niall Collins and Hugh Dolan.
The committee of 20 comprises: Michael Smyth, Monaghan; Henry Cleary, Mayo; James Lawless, Kildare North; Garrett Greene, Clare; Sara Ryan, Dublin South East; Catherine Ardagh, Dublin South Central; Leonie O’Connell, Tipperary North; Michael O’Brien, Westmeath; Donnacha Maguire, Meath East; Áine McGinley, Donegal South West; Mary Lillis, Longford; Mary Hoade, Galway East; TJ McGrath Daly, Kilkenny; John Kirwin, Wicklow; Emmett O’Brien, Limerick County; Gillian Coughlan, Cork South West; Gerry O’Connor, Kerry South; Claudia Kennedy, Donegal South West; Stephanie Murphy Penn, Galway West; and Brig Ryan, Cork South Central.
