The former Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners has said that the investigation branch of his office would have ended up in various court actions had they pursued Charles Haughey. Seamus Pairceir said that he never considered referring the investigation branch to examine the Haugheys' affairs. At the Moriarty Tribunal he said even with the benefit of hindsight he still agrees with decisions he made almost 20 years ago.
Referring to Charles Haughey, Mr Pairceir said that if he had alerted the investigation branch officers to his tax affairs they would have been subject to the "extraordinary powers of resistance that particular taxpayer is able to display". He said that they would have got themselves into various court actions.
The witness spent the morning explaining why he was concerned with how his staff was handling Mr Haughey's capital gains tax bill. He was presented with nine documents involving correspondence or meetings of phone conversations between himself and Christopher Clayton, who was in charge of the file. Mr Pairceir said that he only got involved to offer reassurance to Mr Clayton and he said that he was very interested to know how the Haughey family would react. However, Mr Clayton told the Tribunal he did not feel the need for any reassurance on this issue.
