There have been calls for Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald to be removed from the Public Accounts Committee.
Labour TD and PAC member Joe Costello said this evening in a statement that the “Dáil stunt” by Ms McDonald “was inappropriate” and “it undermines the work and trust of the committee.” He went on to say that “Sinn Fein should consider whether Deputy McDonald is now a suitable person to continue to represent the party on the PAC.”
Ms McDonald has said that the PAC was told it was unable to investigate the claims made by whistleblower Gerry Ryan, which allege a number of politicians had evaded tax.
Mr Costello said the PAC was not powerless to act on these allegations. “It is not true to say that PAC cannot do anything about the allegations in the dossier,” he said.
"PAC has a remit to examine whether the systems and procedures for dealing with tax evasion were adequate to enable Revenue and the Gardai to take the necessary actions to pursue any wrongdoing.
"Indeed, tomorrow we have the Chair of the Revenue Commissioners, Josephine Feehily, coming before PAC, and we will discuss tax matters arising from the whistleblower’s dossier."
The call from Costello comes after Deputy McDonald used Dáil privilege to identify six people who are named in a dossier of alleged tax evasion, and which the committee is currently examining. McDonald was advised by the Ceann Comhairle to not mention the names of individuals who were not present to defend themselves. McDonald subsequently named the individuals.
“It is damaging to the work of the committee for a member to name people mentioned in the dossier against whom nothing has been proved,” Costello said.
Four of the six people named by Deputy McDonald have issued statements denying the claims.
Ray MacSharry, Maire Geoghegan-Quinn and Gerry Collins all say they have never held an account either Guinness & Mahon or Ansbacher Banks.
Des O'Malley has also denied having an account at Ansbacher, and says he was only a customer of Guinness & Mahon because it managed a blind trust for him while he served as a minister.
“I never had any dealings with the late Des Traynor while he was in that bank or otherwise. I never had what is called ‘an Ansbacher account’”, O’Malley said.
