REACTION: The Tánaiste has described the inspectors' report as "a damning insight into a world of conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion over a number of years".
Ms Harney, whose application to the High Court in 1999 led to the initiation of the report, said she was pleased at the court decision to publish the report. "I believe the public has a right to know what went on and I believe that making the report available best serves the public interest. It is right to reveal what others have fought to conceal over many years," she said.
The report showed that there was now the capacity in Ireland to "lift the veil of secrecy" over such activity. The Government had already begun the process of ensuring there was a coherent and comprehensive body of law to ensure "that our society is a fair and just place in which to live and do business".
She listed various regulatory reforms that have been completed or are in train, saying her aim was not just to meet the highest international standards but to set them.
Fine Gael's spokesman, Mr Phil Hogan, said he was shocked at the inspectors' comment that prosecutions might not succeed in the wake of the report. "I would expect the Tánaiste, after five years in office, to have enacted the necessary changes in law to deal with any shortcomings in legislation to tackle any wrongdoing by companies or financial institutions," he said.
Labour's spokesman on enterprise, trade and employment, Mr Tommy Broughan, praised the inspectors, but said the report must not mark the end of the Ansbacher affair. "It must instead mark the start of a new phase where those involved are brought to justice," he said. All cases of tax evasion, criminal conspiracy and breaches of company and banking law must be followed up with prosecution.
Sinn Féin said the report would be a wasted exercise unless it proved to be "a turning point for the accountability of financial institutions". Successive governments had failed to tackle this corruption at the heart of the Irish financial system. In some cases ministers were part of that corruption.
The Socialist Party TD, Mr Joe Higgins, said that while the scale of tax evasion merited long prison sentences, "we might consider allowing the Ansbacher men to opt for several years of full-time community service instead".
This could, for example, be utilised in shoring up some of the hard-pressed social services which were severely undermined by their tax cheating. "It would be the first time they really saw the society created by their system of crony capitalism," Mr Higgins said.