When net began to close, Collins and Foley stayed silent

APART from having significant funds siphoned off in illegal bank accounts, disgraced Limerick TD Michael Collins and former Kerry North TD Denis Foley had another thing in common - silence.

Both men said nothing publicly about their offshore savings and tax avoidance until the rug was pulled from beneath their feet.

Even when both knew they were likely to be outed as tax defaulters neither decided to come clean.

Despite the fact Mr Collins knew he had been fingered by the Revenue, he chose to remain publicly silent. As did his leader and party despite at least some knowledge of what was to come.

Denis Foley adopted a similar approach. In 1997 after the McCracken tribunal began to reveal the existence of a secret financial operation run by the late Des Traynor involving the Guinness and Mahon bank, Foley, a former dance hall manager, must have felt the first tugs of the net closing around him.

The bank and Des Traynor were both involved in his secret offshore deposit.

When the Dáil reconvened that September and voted to extend the Moriarty Tribunal remit to allow it investigate any “holder of public office” with links to the secret operation, Mr Foley voted without disclosing his likely conflict of interest.

Three years later he was vice-chairman of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee in January 2000 when the Moriarty Tribunal revealed he had an Ansbacher account. All along he had said nothing.

Likewise Michael Collins, we now know, chose to say nothing and declined two separate chances to avail of a tax amnesty and avoid the disgrace he now faces.

However, like his past party colleague, the former hotel owner chose the guilty sound of silence over his moral duty - even when he knew he would be named publicly.