P J Sheehan (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 169: To ask the Minister for Finance the responses which were put in place following consideration of the Aide Memoir F255/187, Progress Report On the Non-Resident Accounts/DIRT controversy, dated 28 October 1998 and placed in the Houses of the Oireachtas Library; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44734/08]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Comptroller and Auditor General and Committees of the Houses of the Oireachtas (special Provisions) Bill 1998 was enacted on 16 December 1998. The Comptroller and Auditor General carried out an investigation on the matter and prepared a report in July 1999. This was followed by the Committee of Public Accounts Inquiry.

The Revenue Commissioners conducted on-site, DIRT look-back audits on 37 financial institutions during 1999 and 2000. The focus of these audits was the DIRT position of the financial institutions concerned. In the course of this audit programme, many bogus non-resident deposit accounts that belonged to taxpayers were identified. A total of €225 million was collected from 26 of these financial institutions as a consequence of these audits. The amount collected includes DIRT and the related interest and penalties.

The Revenue Commissioners issued Statement of Practice SP-Gen 1/01 in May 2001, which set out a voluntary disclosure incentive scheme for taxpayers who held bogus non-resident deposit accounts and who wished to disclose and pay all their outstanding tax liabilities by 15 November 2001. This approach to the bogus non-resident account problem was very extensively publicised at the time. Many taxpayers took the opportunity that was offered and payments of €227 million were made under the disclosure scheme.

Enquiry work commenced on 16 November 2001 to identify taxpayers who choose not to avail of the voluntary disclosure scheme. Up to the end of October 2008, payments amounting to €411 million have been made to Revenue by taxpayers who held bogus non-resident deposit accounts and who choose not to avail of the voluntary disclosure scheme. This work is now effectively complete except for a very small number of open cases.