Mitchell sharply criticises `wrong testimony' of Revenue

The current and former chairmen of the Revenue Commissioners were sharply criticised for giving incorrect information to the Public Accounts Committee DIRT inquiry.

The head of the inquiry, Mr Jim Mitchell, told the current Revenue chairman, Mr Dermot Quigley, "we don't like that happening". He said information Mr Quigley had given to the PAC had "given rise to some sort of rumble, to say the least" among tax inspectors.

Last Wednesday the former chairman, Mr Cathal Mac Domhnaill, admitted he was wrong when he told the PAC last year that all financial institutions had been approached in 1991 about the administration of their deposit accounts.

Mr Mitchell said it was the "second incident of wrong testimony being given at a high level from the Revenue - testimony that has had to be corrected" and he was "not in the least bit pleased that it was necessary for clarification".

He referred to Mr Quigley's comments that he wanted to dispel any impression that there was division in the Revenue Commissioners and said it was Mr Quigley's comments in the CAG's report which gave an appearance of division.

Mr Quigley was quoted in the Comptroller and Auditor General's report on Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT) on an internal revenue document - SIM 263. This was an internal instruction to tax officials preventing the examination of declarations of non-resident accounts.

The Revenue chairman said in the CAG's report that SIM 263 did not prevent inspection where the investigation branch came across information which suggested the existence of bogus non-resident accounts.

A number of tax officials giving evidence to the inquiry said that this was not true, that non-resident accounts were "clearly off-limits" to inspection.

Mr Quigley told the chairman "I take my evidence seriously" and his understanding might not have been 100 per cent. He said he certainly did not set out to mislead the Comptroller and Auditor General. He said he had "immediately taken the initiative" and written to correct this in a letter and he did not think the chairman could "generalise" from this.