A report into the accounts held in an off-shore bank in which millions of pounds were allegedly secreted by some of Ireland’s wealthiest people - including politicians - has been supplied to the High Court.
After some of the most shocking allegations of tax evasion and corruption in the history of the State, the Court appointed four inspectors in 1999 to investigate around 200 depositors who held accounts with Ansbacher (Cayman) Ltd., formerly Guinness & Mahon Cayman Trust Ltd.
A decision on whether to make public the names of those mentioned in the report will be made in two weeks by High Court President Mr Justice Finnegan.
However he has instructed that copies of the report be immediately forwarded to the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Tánaiste, Ms Harney, and the Director of Corporate Enforcement, Mr Paul Appleby.
Both Ms Harney and Mr Appleby today welcomed the report with both urging its full publication as soon as possible. Both parties confirmed they had received it and said they would be considering their response but that a decision on publication lay with the courts.
Mr Appleby said: "The Ansbacher Inquiry has been a very difficult and prolonged assignment. The completion of the Inquiry has required a huge effort to overcome a number of inherent obstacles, including the restrictive secrecy laws governing financial operations based in the Cayman Islands, an absence of certain documentation, the death of some of the principals involved and the passage of time since Ansbacher (Cayman) Ltd began conducting business in Ireland in the early 1970s."
Labour's Mr Pat Rabbitte today urged Mr Justice Finnegan to publish the report: "Five years after this labyrinth of duplicity inherent in the Ansbacher accounts first came to public attention, the Irish public deserve to know the full truth."
He said the Irish taxpayer had funded three reports into Ansbacher deposits and that the High Court investigation came about because there was "serious wrongdoing at the heart of the Ansbacher accounts".
The publication of account-holders names was the subject of court proceedings in April. Two applicants claimed publication of their names as Ansbacher account-holders would be injurious to their reputations, irrespective of what conclusions the report drew.
However, Mr Justice McCracken ruled the need for transparency in the investigation into Ansbacher names outweighed the applicant’s right to privacy.