The Public Accounts Committee this afternoon published its report on bogus non-resident accounts which concludes that Irish banks participated with their customers in evading tax from 1986 to the present day. It recommends a fresh examination of how much money every Irish bank should have to pay in DIRT arrears for the past thirteen years. The report also recommends that all the money in dormant accounts in all financial institutions should be handed over to the state and used for social initiatives. The Tánaiste, Mary Harney, has said the Government will seriously consider the report's recommendations.
While the report criticises the part played by the Central Bank and the Revenue Commissioners in the entire affair, it says former Ministers for Finance should not be blamed because no official proposals to deal with the problem were ever put to them. One of the central issues the committee was to investigate was whether AIB had a special deal with the Revenue commissioners regarding the payment of back DIRT tax. The committee concluded that no such deal existed.
It has been revealed to RTE that the Revenue Commissioners have already been into 21 financial institutions over a period of months to carry out audits on DIRT liabilities dating back to 1986. The Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, Dermot Quigley, told RTE he expected to recoup substantial funds.
The ACC Bank has said it made clear, in its closing submission to the hearings, that it fully accepts that, in the past, it failed in its obligations to ensure full compliance with DIRT legislation. ACC says that it has already dealt with some of its Revenue obligations from the past and that it is co-operating fully with a detailed audit. Allied Irish Bank said the report was comprehensive and required in-depth study. The Public Accounts Committee inquiry was set up last year after it emerged that AIB had a potential DIRT liability of £100 million arising from thousands of bonus non-resident accounts.
