Sean Fleming is hardly a household name - yet. Hardly a household name in his own constituency of Laois Offaly, which he has represented as a Fianna Fail TD since the last election. He is a respected chartered accountant. He lives in Portlaoise. He is aged 41 (his birthday is around now). He is married and has one son.
Before the last election Sean Fleming was an important figure in the Fianna Fail backroom staff. Giving evidence to the McCracken Tribunal on April 24th, 1997, the then Fianna Fail general secretary, Pat Farrell, was asked: "And who can you tell us is in charge of the finances of the Fianna Fail organisation, who controls those? Mr Farrell replied: "The finances are under the control of a full-time official. Sean Fleming is the finance controller of the party."
Sean Fleming was finance controller of the party in 1989, when a lot of the shenanigans about money and Fianna Fail that we are now hearing about were going on. He could be of great assistance to us, the general public, about matters of current import, if he chose to be so. And he could be of assistance to us now without in any way infringing upon the proper competence of the tribunals of inquiry that are currently under way. Were he to be of such assistance he would certainly be a household name in his own constituency and, for all it matters, maybe even nationally.
Since he entered Dail Eireann in July of 1997, the shenanigans of Fianna Fail dating back to 1989 have been very much the focus of controversy. And although the shenanigans of 1989 might well be Sean Fleming's specialist subject, he has made just a single public comment on them and that was in a speech to Dail Eireann on July 1st last year.
Here are some of the edited highlights of that speech: "On June 8th, 1989, Fianna Fail had a fundraising luncheon in the Westbury Hotel. Mr Paul Kavanagh, chief fundraiser for Fianna Fail at that time, and I were in the entrance foyer of the hotel to meet the various people attending the luncheon. I was aware since the previous evening that Fitzwilton was to make a large contribution to the Fianna Fail party through Mr Ray Burke. When he arrived we asked him for the cheque and he gave the envelope to Paul Kavanagh or myself. On opening it we saw it contained a bank draft for £10,000 and a photocopy of a Rennicks compliment slip. I was not satisfied that £10,000 was the full amount of the contribution. Both of us asked Mr Ray Burke where was the balance. He told us that £10,000 was the amount that was being given to party headquarters and the rest would be used for his constituency purposes . . .
"I was elected a member of Dail Eireann in June 1997. For the rest of that year there was no full-time financial controller in Fianna Fail head office. In July or August 1997 the party general secretary, Mr Pat Farrell, contacted me and asked me whether Mr Ray Burke had given £10,000 to Fianna Fail head office in June 1989. I visited party headquarters and checked the cash receipts book and was satisfied we had received £10,000 through Mr Ray Burke during the June 1989 election campaign and that this contribution had been from Rennicks. I informed the general secretary verbally of this matter and he was then able to confirm receipt of the £10,000. Mr Des Richardson, the party's fundraiser, was in the room during some of this meeting.
"I was out of the country on my holidays at the end of August and early September. I returned on the Sunday before Mr Ray Burke made his statement in the Dail on Wednesday, September 10th.
"On my return I contacted the party general secretary. As it transpired he was out of the country later that day and I was not able to contact him again. Therefore, I telephoned Mr Ray Burke directly. He informed me he would read the text of a letter from his bank in the Dail confirming the details of the £10,000 payment to Fianna Fail head office in June 1989. "I did not discuss the matter with the Taoiseach. In Fianna Fail there is a long-standing practice and an unwritten rule that party officials and fundraisers do not discuss the details of individual donations with the party leader or other senior party members. "I was employed by Fianna Fail in a professional capacity as a chartered accountant. In carrying out that role all information of which I was aware was treated by me in a strictly confidential manner. I would have been in breach of professional ethics if I did not maintain that confidentiality."
From this it is evident that the Fianna Fail backbench TD for Laois-Offaly knew from 1989 that Ray Burke had got a large donation from Rennicks in June 1989. He sat behind Ray Burke in Dail Eireann in September 1997, knowing that Ray Burke was misleading the House over a £10,000 donation he passed on to Fianna Fail in 1989, and did nothing. He did not even tell his party leader and Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, about the deception. But he did mention the Rennicks payment to Pat Farrell the previous month and that remark may have been in the company of Bertie Ahern's close confidant, Des Richardson. Nobody told Bertie.
It has now emerged that the national organiser of Fianna Fail, Sean Sherwin, was aware in 1989 of another large donation that allegedly had been given to Padraig Flynn by Tom Gilmartin for Fianna Fail but had not been handed over to Fianna Fail.
Is it likely that Sean Sherwin would not have told the finance director, Sean Fleming, about this at the time, especially since they both worked out of the Fianna Fail head office in Mount Street, Dublin?
It would be fascinating if Sean Fleming would now tell us whether Sean Sherwin did or did not tell him about the Tom Gilmartin payment at the time or since. If Sean Sherwin did not tell him about it at the time, has Sean Fleming inquired why he was not told? If Sean Sherwin did tell him about it, why did Sean Fleming not tell Bertie Ahern about it? If he did tell Bertie Ahern about the alleged contribution to Padraig Flynn, when did he tell him?
Sean Fleming cannot now hide behind a claim of confidentiality. It is simply absurd to claim that the constraints of client confidentiality preclude one from giving one's client information. Thus that cannot explain why he would not have told Bertie Ahern.
And the issue of whether he told Bertie Ahern and when he told him is now a political issue, not a matter of professional confidence.
In any event, he can ease whatever anxieties he has on that score by getting his client's permission to disclose what he knows - and Bertie would not refuse that, would he?