1993 amnesty was a collective policy decision, Reynolds says

The 1993 tax amnesty was a "collective policy decision" of the then government, the former Taoiseach, Mr Albert Reynolds, told the DIRT inquiry.

Mr Reynolds, who served as minister for finance from 1988 to 1991, said it was a decision taken when there was a need to have a "clean-up" operation. The amnesty that year, when he was Taoiseach, brought £1.5 billion "in to work in this economy" and that was "no mean achievement".

"That is reflected in £240 million or £250 million of revenue and it was not an insignificant amount either."

He also told the inquiry that he was not aware that DIRT was a problem or that, alternatively, it was a "gold mine".

If there was a "pot of gold" with DIRT he would have been the first to run after it, as would the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Finance.

Asked what he knew in the 1980s of bogus non-resident accounts, he replied "very little". Ms Mary Irvine SC put to him the comment of the former secretary of the Department of Finance, Mr Maurice Doyle, that "the dogs in the street" knew of the existence of bogus accounts.

Mr Reynolds replied: "I have a lot of respect for the dogs in the street, they're customers of mine from time to time."

He added however that he "couldn't understand the language if that's what they were barking about".

He was surprised that Mr Doyle did not bring to his attention that it was a major problem. He said there was a letter from Mr Doyle complimenting him for the policies he had pursued at the time.

"Not a mention of DIRT tax problems, not a mention."

He said that nobody was aware of the extent of the problem until the Public Accounts Committee rooted it out.

Mr Frank Clarke SC asked if complaints by the Revenue Commissioners that they did not think much of their powers to enforce DIRT legislation were ever brought to his attention.

Mr Reynolds said that he brought in three Finance Bills and the general criticism was always that too much power had been given to the Revenue Commissioners and not too little.

"The enforcement of the legislation is a matter for the Revenue Commissioners and I have no reason to believe they didn't do their job the way people expected them to do it," he said.