John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is important to clarify this issue before I call Deputies. On behalf of this committee I wrote to the Minister and asked him, as requested by the committee members at a private meeting, to send on the dossier and any supporting evidence of tax evasion to the Revenue Commissioners. That request was made to the Minister because this committee could not forward the documentation directly to the Revenue Commissioners. We took legal advice on that matter and then I took the step, on behalf of this committee, of advising the Minister of all of the issues and making a specific request that he refer the dossier and any supporting evidence of tax evasion to the Revenue Commissioners. A copy of that letter was sent to Ms Feehily's office.

In his reply, the Minister states, "I can confirm to the committee that full disclosure of information has been made to the Revenue Commissioners..." It would have been helpful if the Revenue Commissioners had received that documentation from the Minister and I am disappointed that did not happen. I had presumed from his reply that it did happen. We should request again of the Minister that the specific dossier that members of this committee have be sent to the Revenue Commissioners. We cannot do that but have asked the Minister to do it.

In response to the point made by Deputy Ross, the request of the committee members was acted upon. Ms Feehily's office was informed of the wishes of this committee. I am disappointed that the dossier has not been sent to the Revenue Commissioners, although Revenue does have all of the other substantial information related to this which was forwarded by various Ministers in the past. I note that Ms Feehily has said that there was nothing new in the documents from 2011.