Connemara hotelier makes €2.3m settlement with Revenue

A Connemara-based hotelier has made a settlement of €2.3 million for the under declaration of income tax and VAT, the latest defaulters list reveals.

Colm Redmond, a company director of the Zetland Hotel, Cashel Bay, Connemara, is among 107 defaulters to be fined for failing to meet their tax obligations during the fourth quarter.

Co Laois-based building contractor Michael Holland, with an address at Mill Road, Durrow, made the second biggest settlement, paying €1.7 million, also for under declaration of income tax and VAT.

Others to appear on the latest defaulters list include a former private members club operator, a costume and theatre designer, a takeaway owner, a medical consultant in her 80s, an airline steward and a number of farmers.

In the three-month period under review, 107 taxpayers paid settlements totalling €16.67 million.

Of the 107 published cases, 46 were for amounts exceeding €100,000, while three exceeded €500,000.

Three of the 107 settlements published, yielding €540,000, relate to Revenue’s ongoing investigation into offshore accounts.

Among those agreeing settlements were novelist, playwright and screenwriter Declan Hughes, a co-founder of Rough Magic Theatre Company, whose novels include The Wrong Kind of Blood and The Dying Breed. He appears on the list for a settlement of €88,979 for under declaration of income tax and VAT.

Mr Hughes, with an address at Martello Avenue, Dún Laoghaire, is listed as having an occupation as a costume and theatre designer.

Former private members club operator Gillian Singleton of Clarehall, Dublin 13, settled for €292,268 for under declaration of VAT and PAYE/PRSI. Ms Singleton previously owned the Temple Bar Emporium lapdancing club in Dublin.

Little Harvard, a Glasthule-registered childcare provider, which has centres in Blanchardstown, Bray, Rathfarnham, Rathnew and Leixlip, made a settlement of €70,285 for under declaration of income tax.

Wan Ping Ngai, a Mullingar-based takeaway owner who previously appeared on the defaulters list in 2010, made a settlement of €771,764 for under declaration of tax and VAT. Another individual to appear on the list was Donal Bolger, of 16 Seacourt, Clontarf, whose occupation is listed as a ‘disco operator’. He made a settlement of €408,532.

Mr Bolger was one of three disco operators to appear on the latest list along with Ross Bolger and Warren Bolger, both of Clontarf, who made settlements totalling €50,928 and €35,612 respectively for under declaration of income tax.

Separately, Mary Sheehan, an airline steward with an address in Middleton, Co Cork, made a settlement of €189,096, linked to Revenue’s investigation into offshore accounts.

Elsewhere, Mr Kevin Daly, an accountant from Rathfarnham, made a settlement of €500,551, while Dundrum-based equestrian centre operator Gerry Gorman settled for €158,183.

Wexford’s famous Macken’s Bar made a settlement of €85,987 for under declaration of PAYE/PRSI, corporation tax and VAT.

Dr Pauline Whyte, a consultant and anaesthetist based at University Hospital Galway, and with an address in Barna, made a settlement of €69,726 for under declaration of tax.

Another medical professional to appear on the list is osteoporosis specialist Prof Moira O’Brien.

The first female medical professor in the Trinity Medical School, she also worked with Ireland’s Olympic athletes at the games in Moscow, LA and Seoul games and was the founder of the Irish Osteoporosis Society. Prof O’Brien has agreed a settlement of €279,581 in relation to income tax, PAYE and PRSI.

Among those to be fined for failing to lodge income tax returns was mind coach Paul Campbell of Kilbarrack, Dublin 5, and adult shop owner Marianne Philips who both received fine of €1,500. Oliver Welsh, a surfing instructor from Miltown Malbray, Co Clare, was fined 1,250 for the same offence.