BEVERLEY FLYNN'S readmission to Fianna Fáil was the correct decision and was taken at an appropriate time, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said.
Ms Flynn rejoined the party on Thursday night, after Fianna Fáil's national executive unanimously approved her letter seeking to be readmitted into the party.
Mr Ahern, who made the formal proposal on her behalf on Thursday, said yesterday it was the right time for her return to the fold. "At the time as you know there were things that she had not been able to deal with. We always said that when they were dealt with she would be able to return.
"Many months ago that was sorted out. It's an appropriate time for her to come back."
Neither of the main Opposition parties responded to the development. Fine Gael said it was an internal matter for Fianna Fáil.
Ms Flynn said she was very happy with the outcome.
"I am delighted to be returning to what I have always considered to be my natural home. The feeling both locally and nationally is that everybody has always seen me as being Fianna Fail. It's a very happy occasion for me today," she told RTÉ's News at One.
Ms Flynn was expelled from Fianna Fáil in April 2001, following a failed libel action against RTÉ, over a report that as an employee of National Irish Bank she had encouraged or assisted a number of persons in tax evasion.
Ms Flynn maintained yesterday she did nothing wrong and had not encouraged clients to evade tax, notwithstanding the Supreme Court finding against her in the libel case.
"I regret of course that the outcome was not different and a lot of what has happened over the past couple of years, I regret very much a lot of what has happened.
"I have tried very hard in the past couple of years to put all that behind me. I am very keen at this stage to focus on the future."
She said her readmission had been planned for weeks.
Following last year's election, Mr Ahern said Ms Flynn could aspire to become a minister in the future.
Yesterday she said: "It would be a great honour and on behalf of my constituents it would be a wonderful honour to hold ministerial office. It will be a decision that will be made by the taoiseach of the day and I will respect it."
She dismissed any suggestion that she and Brian Cowen were not close politically.
A "healing of wounds" was the phrase on many lips in Mayo yesterday, following confirmation that Ms Flynn was being readmitted to Fianna Fáil.
"She's back" was the simple two-word mobile phone text, sent from the party's national executive meeting on Thursday night.
If it wasn't quite enough to light bonfires, it certainly lifted a number of hearts, according to loyal supporters.
Eamon Joyce, secretary of the Jimmy Jordan branch, was magnanimous in his welcome although he had not been an ardent supporter during her four years in the independent "wilderness".
"I welcome Beverley back to the party and it brings finality to a situation," Mr Joyce told The Irish Times. "Castlebar has been without a Fianna Fail TD for the last four years, and we hope that the area will now benefit from Ms Flynn's return."
Another leading activist in Castlebar, George O'Malley, chairman of the Paddy Quinn cumann, said the party locally was in "poor condition". "I'm glad the whole saga is done and dusted," Mr O'Malley said.