The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, will comes under strong Opposition attack in the Dail tomorrow over the revelation that the Fianna Fail TD, Mr Denis Foley, held an Ansbacher account.
Mr Ahern will be asked by the Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, why he did not ask Mr Foley to resign from the Public Accounts Committee as soon as he learned in December that the Kerry North TD was being investigated by the Moriarty tribunal. Mr Bruton and the Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, will also be questioning the Taoiseach about why he did not ask Mr Foley why he was being investigated by the tribunal.
"My question will be, when Denis Foley came to see the Taoiseach in December why did the Taoiseach not ask him, or did he ask him, was he involved in evading exchange controls and if he didn't tell the committee vetting those investigating DIRT, why didn't he tell them," Mr Bruton said yesterday.
The Public Accounts Committee, under its chairman, Mr Jim Mitchell, also meets tomorrow in special session to discuss the Foley affair. The meeting was called by Mr Mitchell on Thursday, hours before Mr Foley announced his resignation from the committee.
Mr Mitchell is on holdiays.
A source on the committee said last night the private meeting will discuss the consequences for the DIRT inquiry of the revelations that Mr Foley held offshore accounts.
It was the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, who told the Taoiseach in December that Mr Foley's name had come up during ongoing inquiries into offshore accounts.
Mr Foley has reportedly said he learned only last November that his offshore account was an Ansbacher deposit, when told so by the Moriarty tribunal. However it was revealed at the tribunal last Wednesday that Mr Foley received account statements on Ansbacher headed paper in May of last year, before the DIRT committee started its hearings.
A source close to the Taoiseach said last night Mr Ahern's view was if Mr Foley was aware of his Ansbacher involvement last May, he should not have put himself forward for the DIRT inquiry.
The new Minister for Marine and Fisheries, Mr Fahey, and the newly appointed Minister of State for Children, Ms Mary Hanafin, said at the weekend Mr Foley should have resigned from the PAC earlier.
Mr Fahey said on RTE Radio 1 on Saturday Mr Foley should have resigned from the Public Accounts Committee before he did. He said nothing could be ruled out in relation to the Kerry TD's future.
Ms Hanafin told Today FM yesterday: `We don't have the whole facts and there is certainly no precedent for it. He did the right thing in coming out of the PAC and I think that should have been done immediately."
Meanwhile, there seems to be no great push from within Fianna Fail for the whip to be taken from Mr Foley. Backbenchers who spoke to The Irish Times yesterday said he was a popular figure within the party and there would be no move to have the whip removed from him until Moriarty has completed its investigations into his affairs.
However, several backbenchers said they were angry at the handling of the matter by Mr Ahern. One backbencher said the Taoiseach should have taken more decisive action in December, when Mr Foley confirmed to him that he was being investigated by Moriarty.
Another said that Mr Ahern clearly did not ask the right questions because it did not suit him to have the full answers. "This has not gone down well with the backbenchers. The Taoiseach has slipped up badly on this one," another TD said.