It is unclear whether the Fianna Fáil TD, Denis Foley, will attend tomorrow's special meeting of the DIRT Inquiry sub-committee as he is also scheduled to give evidence to the Moriarty Tribunal tomorrow afternoon. The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Jim Mitchell, has declined to comment ahead of the meeting. Mr Mitchell has asked the North Kerry Deputy to meet him in private to discuss the matter ahead of the special meeting of the DIRT inquiry team.
Mr Mitchell, who returned this weekend from a holiday in the United States, has called a special meeting of the Sub-Committee for Tomorrow at 2pm. The meeting is to consider what to do about the revelation last week that its Deputy Chairman, Mr Foley, is an Ansbacher depositor and is under investigation by the Moriarty Tribunal.
Throughout the course of the DIRT Inquiry, the six-member Public Accounts Sub-Committee took a very tough line with financial institutions that had facilitated tax evaders through the provision of bogus non-resident bank accounts. All six members of the sub-committee were put through a conflict of interest test by lawyers for the public interest before they embarked on their task. This was necessary because the sub-committee was quasi-judicial. It was given some High Court powers and had to make judgements and recommendations about banking practices.
Last week's revelation that Denis Foley had kept his involvement in the Ansbacher Accounts a secret from his colleagues on the committee has deeply disappointed his colleagues on the DIRT Inquiry team. They will have to decide at tomorrow's meeting what action they should now take and whatever they decide will put to a full meeting of the 12-member PAC on Thursday next. There is no precedent for such an event and it is not clear what action the committee will recommend. It is conceivable however, that they could ask the Oireachtas Committee on Procedures and Privileges to intervene and make a judgement regarding Mr Foley.
