Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 12 March 2015

Public Accounts Committee

Revenue Commissioners Investigation of HSBC Offshore Accounts

10:00 am

Mr. Niall Cody:

It is important to distinguish the funds industry from what we are dealing with here. The type of tax evasion that we are talking about is where taxpayers or businesses manage to siphon money out of their business and keep it off the radar. We put it in our report that there is something like €3.3 trillion linked to the Irish funds industry either in Irish managed funds or administered funds. It is a key core part of what used to be called the IFSC. It is a legitimate business and is a core part of our strategy. We have no evidence whatsoever that there is tax evasion or avoidance in that particular category.