Bankrupt TDs may no longer be forced to resign their seats, if a new code of conduct for deputies is adopted.
Currently, TDs can be forced to quit the Dail if they are declared bankrupt, or if they are convicted of an offence that carries a maximum jail sentence of five years or more.
The proposed code also recommends that the Dail's Committee on Procedure and Privileges could suspend TDs for up to three months without pay for improper conduct.
Currently, a TD can be suspended for only one month, and then only with full pay.
Mr Denis Foley was suspended for just 14 days on full pay after it was revealed that he was an Ansbacher accountholder.
Sources deny that the code, proposed by the Opposition-controlled Members' Interests Committee, has been influenced by the financial crisis involving the Fianna Fail TD, Ms Beverley Cooper-Flynn, who faces up to £2 million in libel costs following her action against RTE.
The proposed code was laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas last week and will be debated in the coming weeks. In testimony to the committee last month, Mr Desmond O'Malley said: "Bankruptcy is a Victorian, 19th-century concept in that if you became insolvent, you were somehow almost a criminal and should be excluded from society.
"The world has moved on, happily, and in America it is regarded as a badge of honour to be declared bankrupt a couple of times. Some of the most successful businessmen in the world have been bankrupt one or more times."
