Paul McGrath (Westmeath, Fine Gael)

When this tax amnesty was introduced in 1993 the Minister for Finance of the day, who is now the Taoiseach, said he looked forward to the day when tax cheats would be jailed. We heard absolute guarantees that people who availed of the amnesty and were subsequently found to be in breach of it would face the rigours of the law and be pursued to the ends of the earth until they were captured. The inspector of taxes refused two thirds of the 20 people whom the Revenue Commissioners had pursued to establish what they had submitted under the amnesty. Does that not make a laugh of the amnesty provisions passed? Furthermore, can the Minister say why this should be so given the so-called guarantees given at that time and the very stringent penalties for people who availed of the amnesty and did not come clean then? It seems that if someone makes a voluntary declaration Revenue does not even bother to pursue the powers given to it under that amnesty to pursue those people. Hence my previous question asking how many people had been prosecuted under the different sections of that amnesty legislation.

However, the Minister did not answer that question. He ignored it and gave a global answer to ten questions instead. Will the Minister tell us why people are not being pursued? Why does he now say he will continue to pursue them? Is there a ten-year statute of limitations built into the legislation which prevents the Minister from pursuing people who availed of the amnesty?

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