Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach did not provide me with any information about the former Minister, Deputy Noonan, and how people went to Revenue to disclose their offshore dealings. Before he gets carried away with the OECD saying how good we are with tax compliance, the dogs in the street know what is going on. They also know what is going on in the banks because ordinary families have been terrorised and robbed. I hope you do not get too annoyed with my choice of language, a Cheann Comhairle. The bank robbers are deeply entrenched among the policy makers in the banks. As I said two or three weeks ago, the Government just hopes this storm will go away and it will ride it out and nothing meaningful will happen to those people who are milking us dry day in and day out, and taking the lifeblood of the ordinary people. We do not have any legislation to deal with the big boys and we are playing catch-up all the time.

The Taoiseach referred to so many million pages in the Paradise Papers. The Government gets some cover from that. It is a lovely name for them. It is all confusion. However, ordinary people are no longer confused. They know the Government and the previous one had no will to tackle the bankers, tax avoiders and defaulters. I know there is a difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion but I am talking about big business and the fact that there is no law for them while the rest of us are all subject to the rule of law. That is not acceptable. Even if the Taoiseach was not a member of the finance committee he was well aware of the carry-on of the banks as it was brought to his attention nine years ago. He claims to only know about this in recent days but that is a cop-out.

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