Fianna Fáil faces further embarrassment after confirmation that a prominent county councillor in Co Monaghan was forced to pay €66,200 in back taxes and penalties to the Revenue.
Cllr Patsy Treanor, who was a member of Fianna Fáil's national executive in the early 1990s, sits as a nominee of the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, on the North Eastern Health Board.
Mr Treanor was due to go before a Fianna Fáil local election selection convention in Monaghan tonight, but the meeting was cancelled last evening on the orders of party headquarters.
Cllr Treanor will face questions in time from a FF internal inquiry, a party spokesman said, although councillors are not required to make the same level of sworn declarations as TDs to the Standards in Public Office Commission.
In a statement to ShannonsideNorthern Sound FM, Mr Treanor, who is FF party whip on Monaghan County Council, blamed "bad financial advice" from a bank in the 1980s for his troubles.
A retired psychiatric nurse and a former chairman of the General Council of County Councils, Cllr Treanor said the money had been earned legally in Ireland. Nearly 80 per cent of his bill is made up of interest and penalties.
The news about Mr Treanor emerged shortly after Fianna Fáil's inquiry into tax evasion by the Limerick West TD, Mr Michael Collins, began yesterday morning under the chairmanship of the parliamentary party chairman, Mr Seamus Kirk.
Mr Collins will be called next week to appear before the Fianna Fáil internal inquiry. The inquiry team, which includes two TDs, Mr Sean Power and Mr Sean Fleming, will review progress "in the middle of next week".
It is not known if the Limerick West TD will demand legal representation. There are two legal representatives on the FF inquiry team, a barrister, Mr Colm Maguire, and a solicitor from the party's law firm.
Last night, Mr Kirk could not say how long the inquiry would take. The State's Standards in Public Office Commission has already had talks about Mr Collins's case with Revenue.
Meanwhile the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, repeatedly rejected opposition charges that he had failed to question Mr Collins properly when the TD first told him in June that he had tax problems.
In the Dáil Mr Ahern told the leader of Fine Gael, Mr Enda Kenny, that Fianna Fáil had made it clear that it would not tolerate tax evasion by any of its public representatives. Mr Collins had come to him in the second half of June and said that he had sorted out a tax issue with the Revenue.
Mr Collins believed then that he would be identified within weeks by Revenue in its July list of defaulters, but his name was held over until the October list was ready.
The Taoiseach rejected charges that he should have notified the Standards in Public Office Commission that Mr Collins was about to be named, or that he should have inquired further into the detail of his case.
Replying to Mr Kenny, Mr Ahern said: "When a member tells me in confidence that his name is in the Revenue domain, it is not for me to ring Revenue, which would not give me the details.
"Nor is it for me to circulate this information in the public domain," he said, adding that Mr Collins was "absolutely clear" that he would be identified by Revenue and investigated by the Standards in Public Office Commission.
The commission was set up to handle such issues, and "it is not my job to do so. I will not check the Isle of Man or wherever else people have offshore accounts," the Taoiseach said.
Accusing Mr Ahern of "cowardice dressed up as ethics", the Fine Gael leader said he should have immediately ordered an internal investigation.