Ms Josephine Feehily:

I can only speak from my own experience, I cannot speak for somebody else but I certainly have no experience of political interference. We have discussed previously in this committee political engagement in the context of representations made to the Revenue Commissioners, properly and validly. In the interest of transparency, we have published the lists of the representations and the names of the Deputies, Senators and Councillors who made them in our annual report for the past several years. I want to be clear, that is a different democratic engagement. There is a mile of a difference between political engagement and political interference. We have had representations, we have had briefings provided to spokespersons on technical matters but I have no experience of political interference in the Revenue Commissioners. I might point out that Mr. Justice Moriarty in his report indicated that he was satisfied that the long-standing convention of the independence of the Revenue Commissioners was observed by all. I can only speak for my own experience.