Green Party leader Trevor Sargent has said he is compiling a file relating to the Fianna Fáil TD and Minister of State for Justice, Frank Fahey, which he intends to lodge as a complaint to ethics watchdog the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo).
Mr Sargent said he intended to make a complaint based on a number of issues involving Mr Fahey, including the controversial Lost at Sea Scheme, where two constituents were the main beneficiaries of the programme.
He also reiterated a call he made in the Dáil nearly two weeks ago calling on Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to sack Mr Fahey from his current position as a Minister of State for a variety of reasons, including his involvment in a Moscow hairdressing salon in the 1990s, highlighted in this paper.
Mr Fahey, who was elected in the Galway West constituency, was not available for comment yesterday, his department said.
Last month he strongly defended his record on RTÉ radio relating to declaring any interests he had.
According to his most recent declaration, he has built up interests in a considerable number of properties in Ireland, continental Europe and the United States.
"In fact, I have been very scrupulous in complying with my ethical requirements in respect of my property and everything else.
"I am absolutely satisfied that I have done nothing wrong," Mr Fahey told RTÉ at the time.
Mr Sargent said he also wanted to ask the ethics body to investigate Mr Fahey and his role in the Lost at Sea Scheme.
The scheme provided compensation in the form of tonnage quota, to families or people who had lost fishing boats between 1980 and 1990. Under the current EU fisheries regime, fishermen need tonnage quota to operate fishing vessels, and it has become a valuable commodity.
The Green Party leader's comments come in the wake of further details about the establishment of the scheme, which were published in Ireland on Sunday yesterday.
The scheme, introduced by Mr Fahey when he was Minister for the Marine 2001, has been the subject of complaint by families who were turned down for the scheme, as 75 per cent of the quota available in the scheme went to two of Mr Fahey's constituents.
Mr Fahey has previously defended his role in the Lost at Sea Scheme, saying that contrary to perception, nobody received any direct financial benefit as the quota in the scheme could not be sold on.
Mr Sargent said he would be awaiting the outcome of an expected report by the Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, later this month into the scheme, before filing the full complaint.
An interim report by Ms O'Reilly's office last year described the scheme as "seriously flawed".