Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 30 November 2017

Public Accounts Committee

Comptroller and Auditor General 2016 Report
Chapter 20: Corporation Tax Receipts

9:00 am

Mr. Niall Cody:

I am sorry, what I was talking about was the use of offshore accounts and offshore financial instruments by Irish tax residents to avoid Irish tax. It has nothing to do with a debate around whether a country is a tax haven. What we were dealing with was in the context originally of bogus non-resident accounts, followed by the use of bank accounts by Irish residents and citizens to hide money that was subject to Irish tax and that is what I was talking about last night with the Deputy's colleague, Deputy Pearse Doherty. We had a really good exchange on tackling that. Deputy Cullinane is now conflating what I said last night with a debate, which is a really political debate, on whether the tax code of a country is to be considered as part of a tax haven.