Tax evasion and money laundering
Deputy Martin Kenny linked tax evasion and the Panama Papers to the need for stronger Revenue resourcing and transparency. The Taoiseach said Revenue funding had increased and the Finance Bill would include further anti-avoidance measures; the Justice Minister also said money-laundering legislation would be brought forward soon.
As the Taoiseach is aware, there is a commitment in the programme for Government to deal with the issue of tax evasion and to resource the Revenue Commissioners appropriately for that. I raise that issue in the context of an incident in Malta this week where a journalist, a woman named Daphne Caruana Galizia, was killed in a bomb explosion. She was instrumental in the release of the Panama papers, which exposed a number of very wealthy individuals living in Ireland and others who have business interests in Ireland using this mechanism to hide their vast profits away from the tax collectors of not just Ireland but many places in the world. The death of this person is an attack on ordinary taxpaying people everywhere in the world and this Government and every government has a responsibility to do something about this. While we are not in a position to do anything about her death, we are in a position to do something about the issues raised in the Panama papers.
Will the Taoiseach assure the House that the Revenue Commissioners are pursuing those named in the Panama papers and give us a report, if not now then sometime in the future, on the progress on that? Will he also give us a report on the fourth EU anti-money laundering directive, which is instrumental in trying to tackle this particular issue? Will he outline why the Government has not implemented it and if it intends to implement it shortly?
Comment on this
The Deputy will be pleased to know that the budget and resources for the Revenue Commissioners were increased again in the budget for 2018. The Finance Bill, which was agreed by Cabinet this morning and will be published tomorrow, will involve further actions to close tax loopholes, crack down on tax evasion and implement our commitments to the OECD on tax transparency. On the specific matters raised by the Deputy, I suggest he might put them as a parliamentary question to the Minister for Finance.
Comment on this
On the matter of money laundering, I expect the legislation will be submitted to Government for approval in the next couple of weeks, after which it will be published at the earliest opportunity. We will seek full co-operation from Deputy Martin Kenny and his party on all aspects of terrorist financing and money laundering.