Jim Higgins (Fine Gael)

As Senator O'Meara said, there is a culture of acceptance within the courts and the Revenue Commissioners. We will not get to grips with the situation until such time as people who commit serious tax offences are imprisoned.

The Minister of State referred to yet another review of the powers of the Revenue Commissioners. Its powers have been reviewed time and again. An announcement by the Revenue Commissioners in 1997 that it was going to vigorously pursue tax dodgers received banner headlines in the media. The compliant taxpayer and, in particular, the PAYE taxpayer who has carried the can for so long, who watched tax evaders availing of creative accountancy and obtaining higher education grants while they had to pay to put their children through college, felt that at long last they would get a fair deal and the tax dodger would get what was coming to him. That has not happened. The figures speak for themselves.

The Minister of State and Senator McDowell spoke about the 1993 amnesty. The Minister said:

The 1993 amnesty legislation specifically prohibits access by Revenue auditors or investigators to amnesty declarations. Consequently, it is not possible to examine these declarations to establish whether taxpayers are in breach of that legislation.

A section of the legislation which seeks to dig out tax dodgers undermines the thrust of that legislation. Why should the Revenue Commissioners have to seek from the appeals commissioners further information on whether a person falsely availed of a tax amnesty? That is a farce.

The underlying arrogance of the Revenue Commissioners was discussed in the House in relation to the Ombudsman's report to both Houses of the Oireachtas on tax refunds due to two widows in Cork. The matter was also dealt with by an Oireachtas joint committee and eventually refunds were made. Senator Mansergh, who is a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service, will be aware of another case involving a major stand-off between a recommendation made by the Ombudsman and the failure of the Revenue Commissioners to comply with that recommendation even though it was found to be out of court.

There is no comparison between the Revenue Commissioners and the Criminal Assets Bureau which investigated John Gilligan, Ray Burke and other major transgressors. It dug its teeth in even though tax evasion issues is not its primary function. Such issues only arise if there is evidence of serious corruption. The time has come to handover these powers to the Criminal Assets Bureau, to give the Garda working within that bureau the powers they so effectively use so that at last this issue can be addressed. The Revenue Commissioners, which has had these powers for long enough, has not confronted the problem.