Her friends consider her confident and assertive, while her foes describe her as "able but arrogant". All, however, were united in their expectation that Beverley Cooper-Flynn would be dynamic and powerful when in the general election last year she became Mayo's first female TD.
However, her performance in her first year in the Dail has been lacklustre and low-key, with none of the dash and celebrity expected of the daughter of the Social Affairs Commissioner, Mr Padraig Flynn. Mr Flynn left the constituency in 1993 after 16 years as a TD and government minister to take up his EU posting.
Yesterday's latest revelations in the National Irish Bank (NIB) controversy will have done the former banker no favours, and some suggest it could be permanently damaging for what was expected to be a high-profile and high-flying political career.
Ms Cooper-Flynn, 32 this month, was born in Tuam, Co Galway. She was educated at St Joseph's Secondary school in Castlebar, Co Mayo, and UCD where she received a degree in commerce. She worked in the business sector before joining NIB where she worked in its financial services subsidiary selling Clerical Medical Insurance offshore products.
Tall, slim and a smart dresser, she has a striking resemblance to her father.
The Taoiseach was reported to be undecided between Ms CooperFlynn and her party colleague, Mr Tom Moffatt, for a junior ministry. Insiders now say that there will be undeniable relief that Ms Cooper-Flynn was not the chosen minister.
As a student she was a member of the UCD Fianna Fail cumann and afterwards joined her father's constituency cumann in Mayo and became a member of Ogra Fianna Fail.
The second-eldest of a family of four, she married John Cooper. When she contested the Mayo West by-election in 1994 it proved controversial within the party. Ms Cooper-Flynn had to struggle to secure the nomination against a number of long-standing Fianna Fail public representatives in the county.
Although she was expected to win the seat vacated by her father when he became EU Commissioner, Mr Michael Ring of Fine Gael was victorious. ail organisation. They were and She subsequently picked up the seat in the general election.
