Fianna Fáil has confirmed that former minister and European commissioner Pádraig Flynn has resigned from the party.
Earlier, taoiseach Bertie Ahern submitted a letter of resignation following publication last week of the Mahon tribunal's final report.
The party confirmed today that letters of resignation had been received from both men today.
More resignations had been expected from Fianna Fáil after the voluntary departure of Mr Ahern and councillor John Hannon, both of whom were facing expulsion at a meting this Friday.
A special meeting of the party’s national executive scheduled for Friday to expel Mr Flynn and three former councillors will proceed.
Fianna Fáil party whip Seán Ó Fearghaíl confirmed the national executive meeting would go ahead regardless of whether or not further resignations were received. “It’s a matter of indifference to me whether he resigns voluntarily or whether we move to expel him on Friday. We are not going to have people within the Fianna Fáil party against whom these type of findings have been made.”
He said the same applied for former councillors GV Wright, Don Lydon and Finbar Hanrahan.
Mr Flynn’s daughter, Beverley, a former Fianna Fáil TD, said last night she did not know if her father would attend the meeting on Friday.
Fine Gael councillor Anne Devitt has also announced she is stepping aside from the party pending the completion of a hearing by the party’s disciplinary committee.
Cllr Devitt who was found to have acted “entirely inappropriately” in accepting a payment of £20,000 said she was doing so to protect the integrity of Fine Gael and to have her name cleared of any wrongdoing.
“As a Councillor, I have always complied with the regulations and standards of the time. I am totally compliant with the ‘Code of Conduct’ set out in the 2001 Local Government Act. As far as I am concerned I have acted honourably with integrity at all times,” she said in a statement issued this evening.
Earlier today, Fianna Fáil TD Éamon Ó Cuív questioned why individuals named at the tribunal were not formally charged with breaking the law as soon as evidence of wrong-doing emerged.
Speaking on Radio na Gaeltachta’s Inis Aniar this morning, Mr Ó Cuív asked why files containing evidence of law breaking had not been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions and to the gardaí as long as 15 years ago.
“We have to ask ourselves – as a society – if people are breaking the law why is it that we fail put them before court and convict them.
"Why was it not possible to send these files - as long as 15 years ago - to the DPP and to the gardaí?" Mr Ó Cuív asked.
Fianna Fáil would have to look “very closely” at the report, Mr Ó Cuív said, and would have to ensure that the recommendations in the report are implemented.
Meanwhile, Fine Gael’s disciplinary committee will meet this week to deal with findings in relation to party personnel. Taoiseach Enda Kenny, speaking in Shanghai, referred for the first time to the tribunal’s finding that it was “inappropriate” for Fine Gael TD Olivia Mitchell to have received £500 from lobbyist Frank Dunlop in 1992.
“Olivia Mitchell’s reference in the Mahon tribunal is of inappropriate behaviour. I understand that she was a councillor at the time. The report in its entirety has been referred to the internal disciplinary committee of Fine Gael. They will make their own findings. They are meeting this week,” Mr Kenny said.
Sitting Fine Gael councillor Anne Devitt’s actions over the “Cargobridge” lands were found “entirely inappropriate” by the tribunal.
Writing in The Irish Times today, Mr Ahern describes his resignation as a “real emotional wrench” and reiterated his objections to Mahon’s findings, saying he was “deeply wounded”.
Asked to comment on Mr Ahern’s move, Mr Kenny said: “When the leader of any party of such long experience as former taoiseach Ahern decides to walk away, it’s an indication of, I suppose, some of the Soldiers of Destiny walking in a different direction.”
Fianna Fáil vice president Lisa Chambers, from Castlebar, Co Mayo, said she intended to support a motion against Mr Flynn, who is from the same constituency, when the party’s Ard Comhairle meets on Friday. “I accept the tribunal’s findings that he behaved in a manner that was unbecoming of a public representative," she said this morning.
Ms Chambers said Mr Ahern was within his rights to resign from the party but that she felt the move was a token effort. “I believe that he already knows what is going to come and he is in a sense trying to beat us to it. I really don’t think it makes any difference, to be honest,” she said.
She said she agreed with the tribunal’s findings and believed that Mr Ahern had done some things wrong.
“Whether he resigns or a motion is passed to expel him, it doesn’t really matter because at the end of the day he is no longer going to be in Fianna Fail and I believe that is correct,” she told RTÉ Morning Ireland.
Minister of State Joe Costello said last night the idea of stopping pensions of those with negative findings against them may need a referendum. “But I think it is a matter that we should look at and at the present time we are establishing a constitutional convention,” he told RTÉ’s The Week in Politics last night.