TD wants disclosure on tax allegations

A Labour member of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee has called on the Revenue Commissioners to state publicly if allegations of tax evasion involving senior politicians has been investigated in recent years.

Robert Dowds said the principal concern of law-abiding taxpayers would be that a private banking arrangement existed for the well-connected in Irish society which was outside the purview of the Revenue Commissioners.

“It would be helpful if the Revenue Commissioners would say if the issues involved in the documents that have been presented to the Public Accounts Committee from the authorised officer were investigated at the time,” he said.

Last week a senior official in the Department of Jobs and Enterprise, Gerry Ryan, provided a dossier to members of the Public Accounts Committee containing allegations that a number of senior Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael politicians had engaged in tax evasion.

He had been appointed an authorised officer under company law to investigate an alleged tax evasion scheme. However, he expressed unhappiness at how information he said he had uncovered was dealt with by ministers of various governments and by a variety of State agencies.

Accusations

The Irish Times

reported yesterday that Mr Ryan had accused Minister for Jobs and Enterprise

Richard Bruton

of “interference in the administration of justice” by not forwarding a witness statement given to him in December 2012 to the Garda. He said gardaí had sought the witness statement as part of a possible prosecution stemming from the tax evasion allegations.

Mr Bruton said at the weekend that while this work on dealing with the witness statement after it was provided by Mr Ryan was not completed as quickly as expected due to retirement of key personnel, it would be given to gardaí very shortly.

Mr Bruton maintained that all matters contained in the witness statement were covered by the documents already submitted to the relevant authorities, including the Garda and the Revenue Commissioners. He also said that gardaí had publicly stated that the matters were investigated in 2007 and that a file had been sent to the DPP.

The Department of Jobs and Enterprise yesterday did not say when precisely gardaí had first sought the witness statement.

The Revenue Commissioners did not comment last night on Mr Dowds’s statement.

No response

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the Department of Jobs and Enterprise had not been in contact with Attorney General Máire Whelan about a report containing allegations of tax evasion by senior politicians and others since she was appointed in 2011.

In his dossier, Mr Ryan said he had written to Ms Whelan and Mr Bruton about his investigation but had received no response.

Speaking to reporters in Galway yesterday, Mr Kenny said the department last contacted the Attorney General's office seeking advice about the tax evasion allegations in 2010, which was before Ms Whelan's appointment.

“The Attorney General or her office are not authorised to advise in respect of the designated civil servant, because there might be a conflict of interest in advising the department and in advising the Minister,” he said.

“So a senior counsel was appointed directly to deal with the public servant appointed by the previous minister to look at this matter.”

Mr Kenny acknowledged that Mr Ryan had written to Ms Whelan in July 2011 to point out that he had prepared a witness statement requested by the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation (GBFI).

“So, he informed the Attorney General that that was what he was doing – that was what his letter had indicated – that he had prepared the witness statement at the request of the GBFI,” he said.

“So there was no further contact from the Department of Jobs with the Attorney General since her appointment. In other words, the Department of Jobs has not been in touch with the Attorney General’s office about advice or jobs since December 2010.”

A Government spokesman last night declined to answer further questions about the involvement of the Attorney General.

The Government spokesman said that the whistleblower would be treated in accordance with new legislation in this area, which had been introduced recently.