A Cork developer told the High Court yesterday he was “absolutely shocked” by comments made about him by Minister of State Lucinda Creighton.

Michael O’Flynn, chairman and managing director of the O’Flynn Group, alleges he was defamed in a speech by Ms Creighton, then a backbencher and now Minister of State for European Affairs, titled Standards in Public Life and Accountability, at the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal.

In her Glenties speech, Ms Creighton had said there could be no room in Fine Gael for “the cute-hoor politics” which she said had tainted Irish public life like “an incurable cancer . . . We cannot be satisfied with low standards in high places.”

She said: “We cannot, on the one hand, condemn Fianna Fáil for entertaining developers in the Galway tent, while on the other hand extend the biscuit tin for contributions from high-profile developers, who are beholden to Nama.”

In her subsequent interview on RTÉ’s News at One, Ms Creighton said what made her uncomfortable was that the golf classic was “supported by a developer who is one of the top-10 indebted developers to Nama in the country”.

Asked if she was referring to Michael O’Flynn, she said “yes”. She said: “That’s the one really that stands out.”

*large popcorn, diet coke, jelly snakes, maltesers*