The following is the full text of the statement issued last night by Beverley Cooper-Flynn TD:
This statement is made by me in response to the Report of Charlie Bird transmitted on RTE 1 Six- One News this evening, Friday 19 June 1998, which referred to the ongoing National Irish Bank/Clerical Medical Insurance controversy and which referred to me personally in my former capacity as an employee of NIB who had been engaged in the sale of financial products, including CMI products.
I wish categorically to state that at no time in my seven years working with NIB between 1989 and 1977 did I ever encourage anyone to invest in a financial product as a means of evading his or her obligations to pay tax.
During my period of employment with NIB I was one of a number of bank employees engaged in selling a wide and varied range of financial products of which the CMI products represented a small percentage. All referrals of would-be investors which I dealt with came from the Bank and its branches.
I cannot identify any of the anonymous contributors to Charlie Bird's report but I deny that I would ever have said, or did ever say, anything to them or to any other investors in such products that could have been construed as representing such products as a means of facilitating tax evasion. It was not, however, my function to advise on the personal tax affairs of any such investors.
It is my intention, as previously stated, to co-operate fully with any official enquiries or investigations into these matters, including the current inquiry being conducted by the High Court appointed inspectors.