Independent TD Beverley Flynn has agreed to pay €1.25 million to RTÉ within seven weeks to settle her three-year-old libel case bill and to abandon her attempt to challenge the constitutionality of laws barring bankrupts from holding Dáil seats.
Despite having fought paying the bill for two years, Ms Flynn moved quickly last Monday to reach a deal following Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's signal that she could win promotion if she returned to Fianna Fáil.
Following a gathering attended by 500 people on Saturday night in Castlebar, where she announced that a deal had been struck, she made no effort to hide her determination to rejoin Fianna Fáil quickly.
"I have been elected for Fianna Fáil on two occasions in this constituency. My true home is undoubtedly as a member of the Fianna Fáil party and I have absolutely no doubt that that is where I'll be sooner rather than later," she told RTÉ.
An earlier offer to hand over a house and to pay 20 per cent of her Dáil salary for as long as she served in the Dáil was rejected by the State broadcaster, when RTÉ insisted that only €300,000 would be realised after a mortgage was paid off.
Now, however, she will pay €1.25 million within seven weeks, and agree not to launch any further legal obstacles if she fails to meet that deadline. Since the TD has argued that she did not have resources of this scale, she may have to accept help from her partner, Castlebar-based builder, Tony Gaughan, her family, or friends - which would leave her with a Gift Tax liability to pay to the Revenue Commissioners.
Two High Court inspectors, Tom Grace and John Blayney ruled in 2004 that the former National Irish Bank employee was one of a number of bank executives to have encouraged tax evasion.
The jury in the RTÉ libel case also found that she had encouraged people to place money with Clerical Medical International on the Isle of Man to evade tax.
However, the settlement now means that the daughter of former European Union commissioner Pádraig Flynn is one step further back from the political wilderness.
Under the RTÉ agreement, she will also end her challenge to the Electoral Act that bars bankrupts from running for the Dáil or holding seats already won.
If RTÉ had secured a bankruptcy order against her following proceedings begun last June, she would have had six months to get the declaration annulled or to get a certificate of discharge under the Bankruptcy Act 1988 from the High Court.
If she had failed to get either of those, the examiner of the High Court would then have been required to notify the Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil of her bankruptcy "as soon as possible" after the six-month deadline passed.
Ms Flynn's determination to bring the affair to an end came after last Sunday week's comment by the Taoiseach that she would have a "legitimate expectation" for promotion.
Although the Mayo Fianna Fáil organisation was infuriated and newly-elected TD, Dara Calleary concerned, Mr Ahern has stuck to his line that he wants her back in Fianna Fáil.
She was expelled in 2001 after she lost her libel action against RTÉ over allegations by Charlie Bird and George Lee that she had been involved in tax evasion. She was allowed back again before the 2002 general election when she was elected on the 10th count, but was expelled again in 2004 after she lost her Supreme Court appeal.
The High Court taxing master ruled in mid-2005 that she owed €1.5 million to RTÉ in legal costs for the long-running case, and the bill has been rising by €12,000 a month since then.
Meanwhile, Minister for Education Mary Hanafin last night told TV3's The Political Partythat she believed the deal "certainly clears the way for Beverley".
Acknowledging Mr Ahern's positive comments towards Ms Flynn, Ms Hanafin said: "He didn't give a guarantee but he certainly did say that she would be somebody who would be considered, if everything else was sorted out, and she seems to be sorting out all those issues now."
