Vol. 496 No. 6
261 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Finance if his attention was drawn to the arrangement negotiated between the Revenue Commissioners and AIB whereby a tax liability exceeding £100 million was apparently discharged for a payment of £14 million and a promise of no prosecutions and no publicity on the appointment of his predecessor in 1991. [20490/98]
The existence of a very sizeable number of bogus nonresident accounts in AIB and other banks in the late 1980s and early 1990s was reported in a newspaper in April, and I gave a detailed reply to a question from Deputy Pat Rabbitte on the matter on 28 April 1998. The newspaper also reported in April that there had been correspondence in 1991 between the Revenue Commissioners and AIB regarding DIRT, and that report was the first time my attention was drawn to those contacts.
The Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners has made clear to the Committee of Public Accounts that there was no settlement or writeoff of tax in this case. The matter is the subject of a continuing investigation by the Committee, and the Government has already announced that it is fully committed to assisting the Committee of Public Accounts to progress its ongoing investigations as rapidly as possible. Officials of my Department are drafting legislation which will facilitate the Committee to this end.
