Dail opens special sitting to debate Ansbacher report

The Dáil has begun debating the Ansbacher report in a special one-day sitting amid Labour Party claims that a single day is insufficient time to consider the detail contained within it.

As the debate began, the Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, told the Dáil that other issues like the public finances and the sale of soccer television rights should also be discussed.

The Labour Party is also understood to be eager to disrupt proceedings to demand answers on the FAI decision to sell the TV rights to Republic of Ireland home soccer internationals to Sky Television.The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, is set to lead off the debate. Fine Gael, Labour, the Greens and Sinn Féin will follow her before an hour-long question-and-answer session.Opposition parties will also call for an end to self-regulation of professional bodies, including accountants and solicitors.The Ansbacher report was raised at yesterday's weekly Cabinet meeting but no new initiatives are thought likely to be raised at today's session in the Dáil.This morning the Labour Party's justice spokesman, Mr Pat Rabbitte, told RTE radio's

Morning Ireland

that he applauded the Tánaiste's work in producing the report. However, he said she "would be the first person in opposition to raise hell if a report of this significance was produced ... and then the Dáil was allowed four or five hours to debate it. It really is a nonsense."Mr Rabbitte said he hoped the Public Accounts Committee would be nominated to investigate aspects of the report.Fine Gael's Mr Phil Hogan, the party's spokesman on enterprise, trade and employment, said he was looking forward to the Tánaiste unveiling a package of measures today to ensure there is no repeat of the tax evasion detailed in the Ansbacher Report.He said the professional bodies, including accountants and solicitors and the Central Bank need to come under scrutiny.But Fianna Fáil's Minister of State for European Affairs, Mr Dick Roche disagreed that one day's debate was too short to debate the findings of the Ansbacher Report.He said the legislate and enforcement measures already taken like the Company Law Enforcement Act and the establishment of the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement was more appropriate than Dáil debate.In reference to a wider investigation into tax evasion, Mr Roche said: "There is a suspicion that Ansbacher was not the only game in town. I personally believe that it wasn't and there's going to have to be a follow on from that.""It is very clear that there was a whole sector in Irish society in banking and accounting and the law who were quite willing and able and used their ingenuity to defraud the State," he said.