Ms Josephine Feehily:

I do not know what Mr. Ryan's concern is. In terms of the committee's relationship with Revenue, down the years, this is not the first time there has been extensive discussion. There was discussion between this committee and some of my predecessors, when these issues were live. I assure the Deputy that every single piece of information we received from the officer and his Ministers was examined and followed through on, wherever it took us. I cannot comment on his dissatisfaction. As Deputy Deasy pointed out, if he had asked us, I could only have given him answers that would have been in the same vein as those I am giving to this committee. I could have given him assurances that everything was taken seriously, researched and checked. However, I could not have shown him the tax files, during a roundtable discussion or otherwise.

The Deputy referenced the Garda Síochána. It may be helpful to the committee, because it was not followed up by anyone else, to note that during this period Revenue officials gave 20 witness statements and 15 sets of books and records to the Garda Síochána, in relation to the Garda Síochána's investigations. We have engaged fully with the other agencies. We have a close working relationship with the Director of Corporate Enforcement, as a matter of course. His office did not exist at the beginning of this process but once it came into place, we got to know the officer and we now have memorandums of understanding, MOUs, in place. We work closely with all of the agencies. In this particular set of cases, we have shared considerable information. My officials also took part in meetings with the Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP, in the early part of this investigation. We did not confine our work to our taxes prosecutions. We assisted consideration of other prosecutions where we could, including the provision of extensive witness statements. Twenty witness statements is fairly extensive.