Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I do not want to get into a contentious debate about the Taoiseach having the most outstanding record ever on dealing with tax evasion, but in terms of people watching this, it is a matter of record that in mysterious circumstances the Taoiseach said he would oppose the introduction of a tax amnesty and then, as Minister for Finance, he brought it in. He also brought in specific measures designed to assist individual holders of valuable works of art and so on.

To go back to the question of when the Taoiseach knew about these events, is he saying he did not know about them until they came into the public domain? What does he mean by "some years ago"? Will he say what the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform means about "matters of the utmost gravity"? Did the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform bring to the attention of the Taoiseach his knowledge of whatever caused him to believe that these are matters of the utmost gravity? Did the Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform discuss what action, if any, they might take? Do his total efforts at retrieving the £50,000 amount to the single letter written by the general secretary of Fianna Fáil after this matter came into the public domain and was there any follow-up on that?

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