Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is the Revenue Commissioners. I appreciate that. I think the Minister put that on the record earlier today, or at least the Taoiseach did. On the matter of the bank, however, the Minister is the main shareholder in AIB. What the Paradise Papers tell us is that a subsidiary of AIB, at a time when it was State owned, refused access to information that the Revenue Commissioners required. We were also told that as a banking strategy, at a time when the bank was State owned and the Minister for Finance held 99.8% of the shareholdings in the bank, it targeted Irish individuals for tax evasion purposes to boost the deposits of that subsidiary which would benefit the overall AIB group. Has the Minister lifted the phone to contact the CEO of AIB or the former public interest director? Has he asked the former Minister, Deputy Noonan, whether he was aware of any of that at the time? Were any reports ever given to the Minister by anybody within the Department? This is a very serious issue. We are discussing a measure that will see Revenue transfer funds to the same financial institution and it is appropriate that we know that these issues are not just brushed under the carpet. The Revenue Commissioners will do their job, but as the majority shareholder of AIB, the Minister has a responsibility also to be satisfied on the issue.