Mayo TD Ms Beverly Cooper-Flynn told the High Court today she was not aware of the existence of a retired farmer prior to an RTÉ broadcast in which he made allegations against her concerning an offshore investment scheme.
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Ms Cooper-Flynn broke down as she gave evidence in the High Court
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Ms Cooper-Flynn broke down as she told the court that she was shocked and devastated when she watched an RTÉ news bulletin on the June 19 1998 which she is claiming damaged her reputation. She said over the next few days when meeting people in her constituency she felt "everyone was looking at her".
Ms Cooper-Flynn from Westport Road Castlebar is suing RTÉ journalist Mr Charlie Bird; and a retired farmer, Mr James Howard of Wheaton Hall, Drogheda, Co Louth.
She claims she was libeled in broadcasts on RTÉ between June 19th 1998 and the July 1998 and that words used on the programme meant that she had instigated a scheme, the object of which was the evasion of the lawful payment of tax. The defence denies the claims.
On the second day of the hearing, Mr Hugh Mahon SC, for the plaintiff, questioned Ms Cooper-Flynn on her role as a financial consultant in the Financial Advice Service Division in National Irish Bank, (NIB), between 1989 and 1997 and her involvement with the sale of the Clerical Medical Insurance (CMI) product - Personal Portfolio.
This afternoon, she denied allegations made against her on RTÉ that she had pressed people into buying the CMI product as a way to evade tax.
Ms Cooper-Flynn said she did not consider the CMI product to be something separate or different to other investment products available at the time.
Earlier she told the court it was "a perfectly legitimate product that I was advised to sell". She said it had been approved by the head of her division and the investment manager and that she thought it was and still is an "excellent product".
The court heard how on January 24th, 1998, Mr Bird had phoned Ms Cooper-Flynn inquiring about the business affairs of a businessman in Castlebar. She replied she knew nothing about the man. Mr Bird also told Ms Cooper-Flynn he was looking into something in relation to NIB and the CMI products.
Ms Cooper-Flynn said she was subsequently contacted by RTÉ's economic correspondent Mr George Lee about a Prime Timebroadcast and again by Mr Bird but neither posed any allegations against her.
She then recounted the events of the 18th of June 1998, when Mr Bird rang her as she left Leinster House to go to a Fianna Fail conference in Cavan. He told her that he and RTÉ were investigating her personally and were at the point of broadcasting allegations. She said she could not help him at that time and told him to call back later.
Within an hour she received another call from Mr Bird saying he had a letter to deliver to her concerning allegations about how she sold the CMI product. Ms Cooper-Flynn told Mr Bird unless he could identify the people who made the allegations there was "no point in faxing the letter" as she could not help him.
The letter, which Ms Cooper-Flynn found pushed under her desk the next morning, said it was giving her 48 hours notice of a programme which Mr Bird was going to present on RTÉ. The programme was broadcast less than 24 hours later, on Friday June 19th, 1998.
Ms Cooper-Flynn said at the time of watching the six o'clock bulletin or when she watched the a video recording of the broadcast "about 700 times", over the following weekend, she could not identify the retired farmer interviewed by Mr Bird. She also denied the allegations made by the farmer.
The farmer was later identified to her as Mr Howard. She said that following inquires through the NIB auditors she established she had never had any dealing with Mr Howard.
The hearing continues tomorrow.