Fine Gael plans to table a Dail motion seeking the resignation of the EU Commissioner, Mr Padraig Flynn, within a month if he does not clarify his position on the £50,000 allegedly given to him by Mr Thomas Gilmartin.
This was confirmed by a Fine Gael spokesman as the Opposition parties plan to mount the pressure on a Government shaken by the loss of Ms Beverly Cooper-Flynn from the Fianna Fail Parliamentary Party.
The Labour Party will move a motion of no confidence in the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, during its private members' time next week.
Ms Cooper-Flynn, who now joins the ranks of Independent TDs, told The Irish Times last night: "While I am automatically expelled from the parliamentary party, I am still a member of the party and I intend to support the Government." She voted with the Government on the Bretton Woods Agreement yesterday. Asked if it was her intention to run for the Dail again, she said: "Absolutely. It is my intention to stay in politics for as long as the people of Mayo want me."
She was asked on RTE if she would vote against the Government if the same issue arose again. "It is very hard to know how these things work out. It would have been my wish that some kind of wording could have been found that would have accommodated me."
Claiming that a lot of thought went into her Dail speech, Ms Cooper-Flynn added that it was not her intention to be aggressive or "anti our Taoiseach".
The Taoiseach, meanwhile, said yesterday that he did not hear Ms Cooper-Flynn saying anything to him or others in the last few days "that would indicate that she would do other than support the Government".
Refusing to comment directly on the Dail speeches of Ms Cooper-Flynn or Mr Des O'Malley of the Progressive Democrats, Mr Ahern said the Mayo TD voted the way she did "because she saw that her father was unfairly being pushed into doing something that he was directly opposed to and that was her reason for doing that. I do not have any knowledge that she does not support the Government and Fianna Fail in other matters."
Referring to the comments by Mr Pat Rabbitte that his party "took out" a deputy, the Taoiseach said that Labour was not really interested in the issue. "They were interested in trying to knock out a person, you know, `have a head' kind of politics stuff, that is what they were really interested in. We tend in Fianna Fail to be more interested in the issues," Mr Ahern added.
A Fine Gael spokesman said last night that if Mr Flynn did not offer a reasonable, complete and absolute explanation for allegedly receiving the £50,000 donation within three or four weeks, the Fine Gael front bench would consider tabling a further private members' motion calling on Mr Flynn to resign.
