9 September 1999 Edition
Lies, `non belief' and `misinformation'
BY ROBBIE MacGABHANN
What does it mean when one person accuses another of giving ``substantial misinformation'', when one person asserts that he ``had absolute and total non-belief in most of what they told me'', that something was ``patently not true''.
It means that someone is lying. These were just some of the assertions made by Tony Mac Cárthaigh, a senior tax inspector at the Revenue Commissioners, to the DIRT inquiry this week.
Mac Cárthaigh's comments came from his experience dealing with AIB executives in 1990. He and other tax inspectors were trying to get AIB to admit the scale of bogus non-resident bank accounts they had in their branches.
Mac Cárthaigh had no legal powers to force AIB to comply with his request for information. He did though, offer an incentive of no prosecution, no penalty, no publication, only the levy of reasonable interest and repayment of the taxes owed on the non-resident accounts.
In the end, Mac Cárthaigh told the inquiry that ``AIB gave themselves an amnesty. They had no intention of ever paying tax on any of this money and there is the proof of it''.
A range of officials from the Revenue Commissioners have been questioned at the Public Accounts Committee this week. The evidence from the Commissioners is that many officials suggested or proposed over the years that investigations should be made into the non-resident accounts created by the banking institutions.
For some as yet unexplained reason, these suggestions were never followed up. This must be the major task of the DIRT inquiry now. They have to ascertain whether their fellow deputies in Leinster House intervened at a political level to stop the Revenue Commissioners going after the banks.
We know what the question is. Will we get the answer or just more misinformation?
``AIB gave themselves an amnesty''
What does it mean when one person accuses another of giving ``substantial misinformation'', when one person asserts that he ``had absolute and total non-belief in most of what they told me'', that something was ``patently not true''.
It means that someone is lying. These were just some of the assertions made by Tony Mac Cárthaigh, a senior tax inspector at the Revenue Commissioners, to the DIRT inquiry this week.
Mac Cárthaigh's comments came from his experience dealing with AIB executives in 1990. He and other tax inspectors were trying to get AIB to admit the scale of bogus non-resident bank accounts they had in their branches.
Mac Cárthaigh had no legal powers to force AIB to comply with his request for information. He did though, offer an incentive of no prosecution, no penalty, no publication, only the levy of reasonable interest and repayment of the taxes owed on the non-resident accounts.
In the end, Mac Cárthaigh told the inquiry that ``AIB gave themselves an amnesty. They had no intention of ever paying tax on any of this money and there is the proof of it''.
A range of officials from the Revenue Commissioners have been questioned at the Public Accounts Committee this week. The evidence from the Commissioners is that many officials suggested or proposed over the years that investigations should be made into the non-resident accounts created by the banking institutions.
For some as yet unexplained reason, these suggestions were never followed up. This must be the major task of the DIRT inquiry now. They have to ascertain whether their fellow deputies in Leinster House intervened at a political level to stop the Revenue Commissioners going after the banks.
We know what the question is. Will we get the answer or just more misinformation?