Size of 'conspiracy' could be many millions

The findings of the High Court inspectors were an appalling commentary on the ethics and standard of so-called high net worth individuals who persistently flouted the law for financial gain, the Labour spokesman on enterprise, trade and employment, Mr Tommy Broughan, said.

"We still cannot estimate the extent of the revenue defrauded from the Exchequer through this conspiracy but it is likely to run into hundreds of millions."

Dublin deposits of Ansbacher Cayman based at Guinness & Mahon grew from £3.6 million in 1972 to almost £56 million by 1987, he said. And some £96 million passed through the Ans-bacher/Hamilton Ross accounts between 1991 and 1997 at the Irish Intercontinental Bank.

The findings were also a serious indictment of the supervisory authorities in regard to taxation, auditing, corporate governance and company law, as well as the management of exchange controls.

The report must be followed up with prosecutions, he urged, in particular against people who had availed of the 1993 tax amnesty while failing to declare their Ansbacher accounts.

The inspectors' report was an "outstanding investigation into a very secretive financial world" where the inspectors and their staff had to overcome many serious obstacles.

A key conclusion of the report was that Ansbacher (Cayman), Guinness & Mahon and Hamilton Ross had carried on a banking business in Ireland without holding a licence to do so.

Yet while such illegal banking was under way, the Central Bank, which had "strong powers to invigilate and prevent the disgraceful abuse of Des Traynor and Guinness & Mahon", had failed to do so. He blamed the Central Bank's senior management for this.

The uncovering of the DIRT evasion scandal and the fact that the Revenue Commissioners had been able to track down the "beneficial owners of most Ansbacher Cayman accounts" were hopeful signs that tax evasion would be harder to operate in the future.

The Ansbacher scheme and others like it cost lives, the Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairí Quinn, said. "The health service has yet to recover from the savage cuts brought to bear upon it between 1987 and 1989."

Mr Pat Rabbitte (Labour) said it was being insinuated that high taxes of the time somehow helped excuse tax evasion by the rich. "The fact is the tax legislation of the Ansbacher era is characterised in Finance Act after Finance Act by tax shelters for high net worth individuals." The suggestion that high-income earners were paying high income tax was not true. They had "perfectly legal ways" available to them to minimise their tax liability.

The Dáil was adjourned until September 4th.