Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is a difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion. The Revenue Commissioners will pursue tax evasion with rigour. I hope they have the resources to go through those papers and make sure that no stone is left unturned on looking at areas of tax evasion. On tax avoidance, which is perfectly legal, but completely unethical, it is bad enough from the high flyers in society but when it is a bank that the Irish public bailed out to the tune of €21 billion, sticking up two fingers to us and basically saying that as part of its strategy it would target Irish individuals for tax avoidance, surely the Minister has a responsibility to ask the public interest director – I think at the time Mr. Dick Spring was appointed to the board – whether he was aware of that. Was he aware that a subsidiary was doing this as part of its business plan? Was the board aware of that? Was the Minister aware of that? There cannot be a stand-off approach to this.