TIMES have certainly changed for Phil Flynn, installed this week by the Fine Gael/Labour/Democratic Left Government - as chairman of the ICC Bank.

The Margin cannot help remembering slightly different treatment for Flynn from a previous Fine Gael/Labour coalition when the then Sinn Fein vice president was going for the general secretary's job in the LPGSU, the forerunner of the IMPACT trade union.

Back then in 1983, Flynn was treated as a virtual pariah by the government because of his high profile Sinn Fein connections, with two Labour cabinet ministers, Barry Desmond and Liam Kavanagh, refusing to meet Flynn or even attend the LGPSU annual conference. Barry Desmond even used terms such as "political hygiene" to justify his refusal to meet Flynn.

Ironically, Michael D. Higgins - now a Minister but back then a humble backbencher - stood in at the LGPSU conference after his colleagues had pulled out. How times have changed?