Career
He was a Teachta Dála (Territorial Decoration) for the Kerry North constituency for 18 years, broken by a 3-year stint as a Senator. A former rates collector, in the 1970s Foley successful ran the Central Ballroom in Ballybunion and the ballroom of the Brandon Hotel. He also had an interest in the Hillgrove Hotel in Dingle at one stage, and had extensive property holdings in Tralee.
He was then elected to the 19th Seanad on the Industrial and Commercial Panel, and regained his Dáil seat at the 1992 general election, holding it until he retired at the 2002 general election.
Following revelations that he had held an offshore account with Ansbacher Bank to avoid tax, he resigned from Fianna Fáil on 9 February 2000, becoming an independent Territorial Decoration. He had previously resigned from the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (on which he had been involved in the questioning of an official of the Ansbacher bank in which he held an undeclared deposit) and in May 2000 he became the first Territorial Decoration to receive a penalty for breaching the Ethics in Public Office Acting 1995 when he was suspended from the Dáil for 14 days. He died on 26 October 2013.
