Martin Mansergh (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)

I am unable to give the background details but it is an ongoing if not an eternal battle between Revenue and governments against tax evasion and either aggressive forms of avoidance or tax evasion. The Deputy is a member of the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service and will be aware that a great deal of progress has been made in extending double taxation agreements, taxation information, exchange schemes and narrowing the space in which jurisdictions which have been very happy to welcome deposits in the utmost secrecy, without inquiring too much into their legality in terms of the law of the country from which they come, can operate. More work remains to be done and disclosures were made with regard to Liechtenstein. The United States in particular, has been very strong on this. The German Social Democrat Minister for Finance, Peer Steinbrück, was exceptionally strong. He and his French counterpart organised some meetings to deal with this matter and Ireland has always been supportive. In one respect, Ireland has a law on tax evasion that is without counterpart in any other country, which allows for the quarterly publication of lists of defaulters and penalties. I have been informed by both German and British delegations that although they are quite impressed, they did not think this would work in their jurisdictions. Ireland is ahead of the posse in that respect.

This provision only applies where no scheme has been implemented. Revenue does not want to know who might have looked at a scheme so long as they did not bite.

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