Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for being here today. Mr. Byrne mentioned that his objective today is to talk about the future and what is happening now, which I believe. However, that is not my objective. What is important is that we establish to what extent AIB facilitated tax avoidance and tax evasion and thereby a substantial robbery of the public purse.

Mr. Byrne referred in his opening statement to the establishment of the offshore presence in the Isle of Man and Jersey in 1977 and 1981 and he said that the rationale for establishing this offshore presence was to support the bank's growing business franchise in Britain and the United States and to meet the banking needs of the increasing international workforce. Was that really the rationale for the establishment of those offshore entities? Jersey and the Isle of Man have populations of approximately 80,000 and 160,000 respectively. What is special about them is that they are jurisdictions that have extensive banking secrecy laws and so I believe that the primary rationale for establishing those entities was to facilitate tax avoidance and tax evasion.