Mary Harney Rejects Allegations Over Closure Of Tax Probe

by Jason Gorringe, for LawAndTax-News.com, London

04 February 2005

Ireland's Tanaiste, Mary Harney reacted angrily this week when she was accused of winding up a tax probe in order to cover up its findings.

According to reports in the national media, leader of the Labour Party, Pat Rabitte suggested that the deputy Prime Minister had illegitimately sought the termination of an investigation into tax evasion in banks before she left the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment last September, despite having built her reputation on the Ansbacher Report.

"Why would you want to terminate the inquiry as it relates to three of the companies where some of the most powerful in our society were engaged in tax evasion?" he asked.

Reporting on the matter on Wednesday, the Irish Examiner revealed that Ms Harney responded with alacrity, accusing Mr Rabitte of questioning her integrity, and demanding that he withdraw the allegations.

"I actually don't know what you're suggesting," she told the Labour leader, asserting that: "I have acted properly throughout my career in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment."

She went on to explain that she had asked for the investigation to be concluded several times, on the advice of her offficials, observing that:

"I did feel that seven years on it was time to bring these investigations to a conclusion. I was under the impression they would be brought to a conclusion an awful lot sooner."

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