Mr. Niall Cody:

Their income is generated from capital so it is not subject to income tax but it could be subject to capital gains tax. However, some of them may not have income or capital in a year. One - although neither of us - could get an inheritance and live off it for years. The taxable event might happen this year and the person might have no tax for the next few years. Some 25 were family members who were in that position, while 21 were non-residents or non-domiciled individuals. Mostly their tax liability or tax position - maybe tax liability is the wrong word - their centre of tax is not Ireland. A further 15 of them had specific reliefs and claims under legislation, capital allowances and losses that applied to their gross income to reduce their net income, and they were legitimate schemes provided by the Oireachtas. Then 22 of them had various circumstances. These are people who would have gone through the worst of the downturn and are no longer included in our HWIs. Some of them may have ended up in bankruptcy or wherever.

When the Comptroller and Auditor General is doing his reports with us and we are going over and back with our comments, we probably all end up saying to ourselves that this is tax stuff and stats and everything is fine. Then when 30 September or whenever the report is published comes up, and journalists see a heading, we say, oh, Lord, we should have written more when we wrote back to the Comptroller and Auditor General.