Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The person is still caught in a queue.

The Commissioner mentioned doing nothing off the books. In Vote 20, note 5.4, Settlement with the Revenue Commissioners, the Comptroller and Auditor General states:

Included under the A.1. Subhead is a settlement of €12.5m to the Revenue Commissioners in December 2011 in respect of a legacy liability covering taxes applicable to certain allowances and expense payments made to Garda members in the period 2009 to 2011.

How did the Garda Síochána which is supposed to uphold the law of the land get itself into such a situation? How did that come to be uncovered? Was the Garda Síochána published as a tax defaulter like everyone else? That would have been by far the biggest settlement. How much was tax? How much was interest? How much was the penalty? Given that the Garda Síochána is responsible for detecting crime, does it show a slight ambivalence towards tax evasion and white collar crime in the Garda Síochána that it found itself in this position? It was depriving the people of that €12.5 million. People will be alarmed to know how it came about. Will the Commissioner talk me through the process and how the Garda Síochána found itself having to make a settlement with the Revenue Commissioners?