Ahern associate's position 'being considered'
The position on a Government body of a union troubleshooter embroiled in today’s massive money laundering probe was in doubt tonight, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said.
Business consultant Phil Flynn, who is linked to a finance firm being investigated by gardaí, is in charge of a top-level committee overseeing the roll-out of the national decentralisation programme.
But a spokeswoman for the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said tonight: “Mr Flynn’s position on the committee is currently being considered.”
Mr Flynn is a non-executive director with Cork-based company Chesterton Finance Ltd which is owned by Ted Cunningham who is currently helping gardaí with their enquiries into the money laundering operation.
Hundreds of gardai have seized over £2.3m (€3.3m) in dozens of nationwide searches linked to an IRA money laundering operation which may be connected to December’s £26.5m (€38m) Northern Bank heist.
Mr Flynn confirmed he travelled to Bulgaria with Mr Cunningham two weeks ago to scout for possible property investments.
It is believed Mr Cunningham approached Mr Flynn last year to join the board of the company.
Mr Flynn believed the firm to be reputable and took a 10% stake in the business to help revamp it.
The Co Louth native said he was also quizzed by the Criminal Assets Bureau yesterday in relation to Chesterton Finance Ltd and officers seized all files he had relating to the company. There is no suggestion Mr Flynn was involved in any wrongdoing.
The 61-year-old, who is currently chairman of the Irish division of the Bank of Scotland, said he was “completely shocked” by the developments that are unfolding.
Earlier today he told PA News he had tried to contact Mr Cunningham on his mobile phone “but it was turned off“.
Mr Flynn was a former vice-president of Sinn Féin in the 1980s.
A former general secretary of the public sector union Impact, he is also former president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU).
The son of a carpenter, Flynn grew up in a republican environment in Dundalk and emigrated to the UK in 1957.
He worked as a health service officer in London, where he became involved in the National Union of Public Employees in the mid 1960s.
Returning home in 1967, he was appointed assistant general secretary of the Local Government and Public Services Union (LGPSU), and rose to general secretary in 1984.
Elected vice-president of Sinn Féin in the 1980s he worked alongside party president Ruairi O Bradaigh.
He was appointed chairman of the Industrial Credit Corporation – later ICC Bank – by the Rainbow Government in 1996.
He became chairman of the Bank of Scotland in 2002 after its takeover of ICC.
