A clash is expected between the Government and the opposition parties over publication of the Ansbacher names when the Dail resumes today after the summer recess.
The Government is continuing to resist pressure to publicly name those listed in the confidential report into the Ansbacher accounts by the Tanaiste's authorised officer, Mr Gerard Ryan. Fine Gael has put down a motion in the Dail demanding publication of the names.
The Cabinet was yesterday advised against publication by the Attorney General, Mr Michael McDowell.
A Government amendment to the Fine Gael motion, restating its opposition to publication, is expected to have the backing of the four Independent TDs who support the Government in the Dail.
Yesterday the Taoiseach described as "entire nonsense" any suggestion that members of the Government who were in possession of Mr Ryan's Ansbacher report had selectively and malevolently leaked certain names listed in it.
Mr Ahern said that, to the best of his knowledge, many of the 120 people on the list "do not know they're in it . . . do not know the circumstances in which they were named". They could be entirely innocent or entirely guilty, but due process had to apply.
He was glad to see that the Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, was beginning to realise that it was "wrong to be leaking names".
A statement issued on behalf of Dr Tony O'Reilly, chairman of Independent News & Media, said that he had issued libel proceedings against The Irish Times after yesterday's editions stated that he was described as an Ansbacher depositor in Mr Ryan's report.
Speaking on RTE radio yesterday, Mr Peter Sutherland, the former EU Commissioner, said that he had had dealings with Guinness & Mahon Bank - the original owners of Ansbacher (Cayman) - in the 1970s. He declined to comment to The Irish Times.
Mr Sutherland pointed out that he had not been resident in the State for most of the past 15 or 20 years. Asked if this meant that he could have had an Ansbacher account or an offshore account "without anything being wrong", he said: "It certainly does in that context." He said that he currently held offshore accounts.
He told RTE that he did not control or own accounts in College Trustees, an offshore trust company associated with Ansbacher which managed money for Irish clients. He added that his father, Mr W.G. Sutherland, had no knowledge of the company.
In a statement yesterday, Ms Mary Banotti, the Fine Gael MEP, said that cheques payable to her which had been "lodged in Guinness & Mahon Bank" could only have been lodged by the professional firm which managed her business affairs in her Dublin office.
Speaking on RTE radio, she accepted that her name had appeared on the authorised officer's Ansbacher list, but said that she could not understand why. "I gather it must have been some reference to the two cheques totalling, as I say, £820, and if it is £820 I'm not sure that Ansbacher had many accounts of that size of money", she added.
Others who yesterday denied holding Ansbacher deposit accounts were: Mr Pat Dineen, chairman of Bord na Mona; Independent News & Media directors Mr Vincent Ferguson and Mr Jim McCarthy; and Mr Ken O'Reilly-Hyland, a former Central Bank director, who said that no members of his family held Ansbacher accounts. The family of the late Mr Hugh Coveney, Fine Gael TD for Cork South-Central, also denied that he was an Ansbacher depositor.
Architect Mr Sam Stephenson and Mr Harry T. Murray, a director of Murray's Rent-a-Car, did not return calls to their offices. Mr Richard Wood, a former director of CRH, did not return a call to his home. Mr Wood, a former member of the Irish Times Trust, said last week that he was not a depositor. Mr Bob Willis, former chief executive of Irish Life and a board member of CRH in 1987, did not return a call to his home.
Mr Gerry Hickey, a former board member of CRH and former director of New Ireland Assurance, refused to comment when contacted yesterday.
The chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, Mr Dermot Quigley, said yesterday that the Revenue had begun issuing letters to people named in the Ansbacher report. "We are setting about straight away investigating these cases and letters are issuing to the people who are on the list. I have to emphasise, of course, that there is a lot of groundwork to be put in here. We are quite clearly dealing with very sophisticated schemes", he told RTE radio.
"I don't assume that all the people involved are necessarily involved in tax evasion. There are various factors that come into play: the residence of the person and the circumstances in which the deposit was made."
Two of the directors of Ansbacher (Cayman) Ltd, who have been given a copy of the authorised officer's report, last night declined to comment on the ongoing controversy when contacted by The Irish Times.