The Kerry North TD, Mr Denis Foley, is now at the centre of investigations by two Dail committees following the Moriarty tribunal revelations that he is an Ansbacher account-holder.
The Dail Committee on Members' Interests yesterday agreed to investigate whether the TD breached the Ethics in Public Office Act following a complaint from the Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn.
The Dail Committee on Procedure and Privileges is also to conduct an investigation after the matter was referred to it yesterday by the Public Accounts Committee.
Mr Quinn is alleging that Mr Foley breached Section 7 of the Ethics in Public Office Act, 1995, when he voted in the Dail in September 1997 against a Labour Party amendment to widen the terms of reference of the Moriarty tribunal.
The amendment sought to include a specific reference to the Ansbacher accounts. Section 7 of the Act states that a TD who speaks or votes in a debate while aware that he or she has a material interest in the subject matter of the proceedings should declare that interest.
A committee source told The Irish Times last night that a decision would be taken next week on whether the committee should hold public hearings to inquire into whether the Ethics Act was breached.
The Public Accounts Committee, from which Mr Foley resigned last week after the Ansbacher revelations, met in private yesterday to consider his resignation. Members expressed disappointment at the events which led to the resignation.
Mr Foley sat on the PAC subcommittee which carried out the recent DIRT inquiry.
The committee said after its 1 1/2-hour meeting yesterday that the integrity of the DIRT report, published on December 15th, was in no way affected by the turn of events. However, the committee unanimously agreed that its chairman, Mr Jim Mitchell, should refer the matter to the Committee on Procedure and Privileges to enable that committee to consider what further action could be taken on the matter, especially in the context of the written declaration regarding conflict of interest signed by Mr Foley on July 15th, 1999, before the DIRT inquiry began.
The Leas Ceann Comhairle, Dr Rory O'Hanlon, yesterday ruled out questions in the Dail on the Foley affair following angry exchanges between the Opposition and the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.
The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, and Mr Quinn insisted that Mr Ahern owed it to the House to answer questions on how precisely he was informed that Mr Foley was being investigated by the Moriarty tribunal. The Opposition leaders also demanded to know why Mr Ahern did not insist that Mr Foley should resign from the PAC when he spoke to him before Christmas.
Mr Ahern said that he did not consider it appropriate for him to comment on the matter at this time given the fact that Mr Foley was being investigated by the Moriarty tribunal and by the Dail Committee on Members' Interests. However, the Taoiseach said that his "commitment to due process should not be taken as condoning any illegal acts of tax evasion".