Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, it is not a get out of jail card because jail is not one of the punishments. The punishments are specified under tax law, as described by Deputy Doherty, and that is what would apply. People do not go to jail at the end of the process. It is tax avoidance; it is not tax evasion. There is an international industry active in this city where tax advisers explore the possibility of coming up with new and novel tax avoidance schemes which they market to clients. Revenue, frustrated by the slow process of bringing people to book, has decided to have a short period where some of the penalties are mitigated but no tax is written off. Those people are liable for all the tax they avoided but some of the penalties are mitigated. The principal mitigation is that instead of charging 100% of the interest rate the recommendation is to reduce it to 80%.

Idealists might regard such pragmatism as unprincipled but Revenue considers it to be a way to get in the tax that was avoided rather than going through an expensive court system. They are not saying this will go on forever. They are saying if persons in this category do not avail of this offer from Revenue then they will be pursued in court and let the chips fall where they will.