PJ Mara Says 'Bad Thoughts' Made Him Stash Money Offshore

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

03 August 2001

Former Irish government press secretary, PJ Mara, told the Flood Tribunal earlier this week that he had used an offshore account in the Isle of Man to lodge consultancy fees because he 'probably had bad thoughts at the time', it was revealed recently.

Mr Mara, who is currently embroiled in controversy over his financial relationship with businessman Dermot Desmond and his involvment with Century Radio, said in his defence that he had since undergone a change of heart, and had remitted the money from that account back to Ireland and paid tax on it. However, Patricia Dillon, SC, speaking for the Tribunal, put it to him that there had been transactions on the account until 1997.

Mr Mara also apologised to the Flood Tribunal for having been slow to comply with an order to submit documents related to his financial and business affairs, saying that it was 'not a particularly elegant thing to do. It was not efficient.'

However muddy the waters surrounding Century Radio, one thing remains clear- coninciding as it does with the government's recent clamp-down on tax evasion and desperate efforts to restore public confidence in the Irish taxation system, this latest revelation must come as something of an embarrassment. Mr Desmond has also had a brush with offshore controversy, and in 1998 was accused by Magill magazine of owning a secret account with Ansbacher. He denied the allegation.

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