Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister's remarks in that he has assured us that Revenue will be investigating the circumstances, the companies and the individuals involved in the Paradise Papers. However, Revenue must be resourced to do this. The Paradise Papers are an elaborate collaboration between banks, accounting firms and law firms spread across the world, including Ireland. One must question whether the resources are available in Revenue, because matching the expertise is a really big difficulty. There are experts available within our universities, and I often wonder whether they are under-used.

Should this investigation go wider than Revenue? Revenue will act within the law, as it must. We are constantly told that these companies did nothing illegal. One has to ask sometimes why there is no law to prevent some of the stuff that is revealed. It really undermines people's faith in a country when they consider the struggles that they go through. People know the resources that are needed to deliver public services and they see a particular cohort of people who are very wealthy being able to manage to reduce the amount of tax they pay. There is such inequality in this that it is an affront to people.

I also wonder about the cash profits. They were not just generated, stacked in big piles, put in a suitcase or a container and sent off to some foreign country. These were transactions that went through the banks. The banks are a central player in all this. It is clear there are banks within banks, and that has been the case for a while. It is not some sort of mythical thing. It can only happen in that way, and I wonder about the banks that we had control over and still have a significant amount of control over. Why was more not done on this? If one leaves the country with a large amount of money, it has to be declared. I do not understand how it happens.

There are myriad financial transactions and arrangements in place. It is a labyrinth.

I do not always agree with Deputy Mattie McGrath but I agree with his point on the manner in which money owed by ordinary taxpayers is recouped by Revenue. I pay my taxes and I am happy to do so but there are times when acts of civil obedience, as in the case of water charges, are necessary. This proposal was the straw that broke the camel's back. The reaction to an ordinary person engaging in civil disobedience of this type is very different from the reaction when large companies default on taxes. Non-payment of water charges pales into insignificance in terms of the amount involved in the latter case. Why there is not a sense of outrage and urgency to deal with this issue in a much more comprehensive way is of major concern.

Prior to the crash many people queued for days to purchase houses at exorbitant prices. Many of these houses were bought off-plan because purchasers were afraid that if they did not do so the price of a house might increase by another €10,000 the following week. People are still paying the price for this in terms of very high mortgages, negative equity issues and having to live in inappropriate accommodation in terms of size and so on. Given many developers were paid for houses off-plan I have never understood how they could all have lost in that environment. Some of these developers are re-emerging, having left carnage behind in terms of small suppliers, many of which were forced out of business. The question that comes to mind is from where are they now getting the finance. They are hardly being financed by the banks having been declared bankrupt and so it must be the case that they put money somewhere. I have never understood why this scenario existed.

The exposé of the Paradise Papers reveals very obviously that the rich - I am not speaking about somebody who is comfortable or-----

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