The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has rejected appeals from Mayo members of Fianna Fáil over the future of their constituency TD, Ms Beverley Flynn.
Expelling Ms Flynn from the party could have serious consequences for Fianna Fáil in the forthcoming elections, several Mayo representatives warned yesterday after a brief meeting with the Taoiseach in Galway.
A delegation of 13 county and urban district councillors and members of the Fianna Fáil Mayo Comhairle Ceantair travelled to Galway to make their appeal to Mr Ahern at a business breakfast hosted by the Minister of State for Labour Affairs, Mr Frank Fahey. It was a fundraiser for the party's North West European election candidate and sitting MEP, Mr Seán Ó Neachtain.
The Taoiseach was guest speaker at the €100-a-plate function, which has already been a focus of controversy over Mr Fahey's use of departmental notepaper to issue invitations to business figures.
After his address to the 300 guests, Mr Ahern was ushered into a private room to meet the Mayo delegation before fulfilling several other functions in Galway.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Mr Ahern said that Ms Flynn would be given a full opportunity to present her case before the party's parliamentary party and national executive before her proposed expulsion was voted upon. The decision would not be taken by him personally, but he would abide by the decision, he emphasised. There had been an almost full attendance at a meeting on the issue with party officers, he said.
The Taoiseach said that the party's honorary secretary had spoken to Ms Flynn after Wednesday's Supreme Court ruling, in which she lost her libel case appeal, and before the party statement was made about her political future on Wednesday night.
"She will have an opportunity, both at the parliamentary party and the national executive, of stating her case," Mr Ahern said. "That's our rule. So due process, very fairly and very properly as advised to us by party rules, will be followed."
The Taoiseach referred to one media comment querying the difference in the deputy's situation on this occasion. "The position is this: when your case is on appeal to any organisation - whether it's your local football club or your local organisation or professional body - your case is on appeal, and you have an opportunity of stating your case," he said. "So it is entirely different," he stressed.
The Taoiseach acknowledged that it was a "very difficult situation" for Ms Flynn. "The Supreme Court of the land, the highest court of the land, on a judgment of five to nil have made a determination on this," he said.
"The judgments are absolutely clear. We're a democratic political party. We make the laws and pass the laws and we have to uphold them, and in this case a determination has been made by the Supreme Court. So, I'm afraid, as far as I'm concerned as leader of the party, I must follow the rules. Due process will be rigorously followed.
"I don't make the decision. The membership of both the parliamentary party and the national executive will make the decision, but I will abide by the decision made." Commenting on their meeting with the Taoiseach, several Mayo councillors said that they had received an assurance from him that they would be consulted.
"He said he would consult with members of the Mayo Comhairle Ceantair, which was what we wanted," Cllr Annie May Reape said.
"We all think it is too hasty," she added. "I don't speak for everyone in Mayo but there will be an awful backlash and it will be embarrassing for the party in Mayo. Now we will be left with one Fianna Fáil TD. We have a majority in government, so we need to retain our two deputies."
However, Cllr Jimmy Maloney from Foxford was clearly disappointed at Mr Ahern's response, and said that he felt that Ms Flynn was being made a scapegoat for the actions of her employer.
"She is a very highly qualified TD, and she is very highly thought about ... She was a young girl, a 23-year-old, when this whole thing happened ... They just clamped down on her. Where is the rest that sold the bank policies? Where are the bank managers, what are they saying? They have got away with murder," Cllr Maloney said. "She should be left in the party, as a member of the party."
Asked if a decision to expel her could split the party in Mayo, he said, that this "remained to be seen", but the damage would be evident after the June 11th elections.