Beverley Flynn (born 9 June 1966) is an Irish former Fianna Fáil politician who was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Mayo constituency from 1997 to 2011.
The by-election was caused by the appointment of her father as Ireland's European commissioner and was won by Michael Ring of Fine Gael.
She denied the claims and sued RTÉ, Bird and retired farmer James Howard for libel in the High Court in 2001.
[5] When the bankruptcy action against her opened in the High Court in June 2007, her lawyers were granted a postponement to allow her to challenge the constitutionality of legislation which bars bankrupts from Dáil membership.
[6] She subsequently abandoned plans to challenge the legislation, which was eventually changed in 2014[7] with Mick Wallace, a bankrupt TD, sitting from 2016 to 2019.
[11] Ahern issued the denial after allegations made by Fine Gael and the Labour Party that RTÉ bowed to pressure from him to reach a settlement with Flynn.
[15] After she rejoined Fianna Fáil, controversy arose about Flynn's entitlement to a tax-free allowance available to independent TDs.