The DAIL committee which monitors the conduct of TDs has been asked by the leader of the Labour Party, Mr Ruairi Quinn, to investigate if Mr Denis Foley has breached the Ethics in Public Office Act, 1995.
Mr Quinn has complained to the Committee on Members' Interests that Mr Foley was in breach of the Ethics in Public Office Act, 1995, when he voted in the Dail on September 11th, 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 Ethics in Public Office Act, 1995, 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.
Mr Quinn said last night that the Dail record for September 11th, 1997, showed that Mr Foley voted in the division on the amendment, but that there is no record of him having made a declaration of interest as required under Section 7 of the Act.
"In my view this provides prima-facie evidence of a possible breach of the Act, and I believe that in order to protect the interests of the Dail and the members generally, it is now appropriate for the committee to undertake an inquiry as provided for in Section 9 of the Act," Mr Quinn said.
The chairman of the committee, the Fianna Fail TD Mr Tony Killeen, confirmed to The Irish Times that he received a copy of the complaint by fax from Mr Quinn yesterday.
A meeting of the committee is scheduled for today, but the complaint was not lodged in time to be placed on the agenda. "I will certainly be mentioning the matter to members, however," Mr Killeen said.
According to the Act, the committee would have to decide whether the Act was contravened "inadvertently, negligently, recklessly or intentionally".
Today the Taoiseach will come under strong attack in the Dail from both Fine Gael and Labour over his handling of the Foley affair.
The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, has tabled a special notice question to the Taoiseach asking why he did not ask Mr Foley about the full circumstances of his investigation by the Moriarty tribunal when Mr Foley spoke to him before Christmas.
Mr Bruton and Mr Quinn will also ask the Taoiseach why he did not insist at that meeting that Mr Foley resign immediately from the Committee of Public Accounts.
The Green Party spokesman on finance, Mr Trevor Sargent, said the Foley affair had highlighted why the Government was resisting the enactment of the Ethics in Public Office Act.
"Bertie Ahern continues to claim that he wants his party to have a strong code of ethics. What the Green Party is asking is if this is the case why has Mr Ahern and his Government been so reluctant to introduce the Ethics in Public Office Bill?" he said.