As Members head off for yet another week of recess, compliant taxpayers are left reeling at the latest series of revelations regarding offshore tax evasion via accounts held in the Isle of Man. I refer to the prominent stories on the front page of last week's Sunday Independent which referred to €4 billion held on the island.
The Dáil is entitled to demand from the Minister for Finance an estimate of the amounts involved in the latest revelations. Given that the Exchequer has already benefited to the tune of over €110 million from the Bank of Ireland's Jersey trusts in recent months, it is not unreasonable to suggest that the sums involved in the latest revelations will be between €100 million and €600 million. I also want to know what steps the Minister for Finance is taking to examine the offshore activities of every Irish bank and financial institution over the last 20 years, not just on the Isle of Man, but other islands from Jersey to the Caymans. At a time when hospitals and schools are crying out for money, we need to know how much has been taken from the tax pool. Banks and financial institutions must be challenged as to how they enabled this widespread evasion and corruption to take place.
It is not good enough for Irish banks to sponsor corporate responsibility programmes and boast of responsible corporate citizenship when up to now they have actively pursued a programme, which facilitated an extraordinary amount of tax evasion. The banks must explain how so many Irish people came to believe that the appropriate home for their tax free money was their Irish bank's friendly subsidiary on some offshore island. It cannot all have been down to the initiative of bank clerks in country branches. Does the Minister propose to challenge the banks and their boards and the financial institutions to come clean?
The silence of the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy, on the implications of these further revelations speaks volumes on the continued toleration by Fianna Fáil and the Government of tax evasion. It is imperative we develop a fair and transparent tax system, not only to fund essential services such as schools and hospitals but also to reassure compliant PAYE taxpayers that others, especially the well-off, are paying their fair share.
If there is one thing successive inquiries have shown, it is that the volume of money transferred from Ireland to offshore havens is greater than anyone could have supposed. Those who argued there was no pot of gold from tax evaders have been shown to be wrong time and again. Despite this, the Minister for Finance continues to be blasé about tax evasion. One gets the sense that placating contributors to Fianna Fáil rates far higher on the list of priorities than reforming the tax system.
Rates of personal taxation, income tax and PRSI in this country are now among the lowest in Europe while the Minister has repeatedly boasted of slashing capital gains tax rates. In such a low tax environment it is difficult to understand the continued tolerance of tax evasion. It seems Irish taxpayers now have as positive a relationship with taxation as the Germans had with inflation post the Weimar Republic and the war years.
My concerns centre on the significant number who, by using any of the various devices available, are effectively avoiding paying their fair share. There is a significant group of very wealthy people in Ireland who not only want a low tax regime but effectively want a no tax regime for themselves. This has a damaging impact on other compliant taxpayers, especially in relation to any sense of social or community purpose in funding services we all require such as education and health.
Taxation is a contract between the citizen and the State whereby we collectively pay for those services we deem essential. These revelations further poison that contract and the development of a mature economy with good public services.