Revenue pursuit continues as deadline passes

The Revenue will not be constrained by a lack of financial resources in tracking down and prosecuting DIRT defaulters, a spokeswoman for the Department of Finance said last night. As the deadline for voluntary settlements passed, she said there would be "quite rigorous" trawling of bogus non-resident bank accounts whose owners did not settle.

"Revenue will not be found wanting in terms of financing from the Department," she said.

A Revenue spokesman declined to comment on the take-up in the past month of the concession granted to defaulters, who were offered anonymity, freedom from prosecution and a cap on interest and penalties if they settled before the deadline.

The chairman of the Oireachtas subcommittee which investigated the scandal yesterday urged Revenue to pursue those who failed to settle in the courts. Mr Jim Mitchell TD said the affair reflected badly on the banks and the Central Bank, but on the Revenue in particular.

"There can be no pulling of punches," he said. "It's very important now that the next stage is carried out and that the culture of non-prosecution is forever purged from Revenue."

The chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, Mr Dermot Quigley, will make a statement early next week on the settlements to date, the spokesman said.

He added that Revenue had initiated the process of applying to the High Court for access to bogus accounts, as provided for in the 1999 Finance Act.

While the Commissioners received £173 million (€219.7 million) in back-payments from the financial institutions after an inquiry by a subcommittee of the Dβil Public Accounts Committee, the indications last month were that the take-up of the six-month concession was low. Revenue said at that time that it had received only £10 million in settlements.

The Revenue spokesman said yesterday there had been an increase in inquiries to a Revenue helpline in recent weeks, but gave no further details.

Last evening, outside the Revenue central information office in Cathedral Street, Dublin, there was no indication of a rush to meet the deadline as the office closed for normal business at 5.30 p.m. The spokesman said the office would remain open until midnight to facilitate defaulters.

While an internal document released under the Freedom of Information Act suggested that £700 million might be outstanding from holders of bogus accounts, the spokesman said Revenue had "distanced" itself from that figure.

He declined to reveal what the Revenue Commissioners' internal target was.

It is estimated that between 25,000 and 50,000 people held accounts which illegally stated that they were not resident in the State. This enabled them to avoid payment of DIRT, a tax introduced in 1983 on the interest earned by money held in deposit accounts.

If a large number of defaulters fail to settle and if Revenue pursues each of those in the courts, the State could be left with an enormous legal bill. On the basis of comments by the Department of Finance last night, it appears willing to pursue that option, despite the cost.

SIPTU, the State's largest trade union, opposed the concession. Its president Mr Des Geraghty said: "I would have serious misgivings about it. It must lead to suspicion about who these people were."

Mr Pat Rabbitte TD, who was also a member of the Dβil subcommittee, said the Revenue was obliged to carry out an undertaking to prosecute defaulters.

He added: "In terms of numbers, based on purely anecdotal evidence, there hasn't been success in cleaning up this area."