Ansbacher gets Dáil airing

FINE Gael will today push for maximum recoupment of the €3.2m cost of the Ansbacher report when the Dáil meets for a special debate on the issue.

The Government will also face pressure from both Fine Gael and Labour to prosecute as many of those among the 190 named Ansbacher clients as possible for any detected breaches of the banking, company and tax laws. The 166 TDs will interrupt their summer break to meet in special session to debate the implications of the report published last weekend.

The Government faces a stormy session as Labour seek to have discussions on the controversial FAI Sky deal and other issues. These are expected to be ruled out of order.

FG officials last night said Public Enterprise spokesman, Phil Hogan, will demand why Justice Minister, Michael McDowell, has signalled his intention to merely pursue corporate entities involved for costs. "We will want to know why individuals who have very deep pockets will not be pursued," an FG spokesman said last night.

Mr Hogan will also question what FG say is an apparent contradiction between statements by Minister McDowell and the Taoiseach.

"On the one hand you have the Minister for Justice being very circumspect and low-key on the likelihood of prosecutions ever happening. But on the other hand you have the Taoiseach being very gung-ho about being people being brought to book," the FG spokesman said.

Labour Party enterprise spokesman, Tommy Broughan, said the report must not mark the end of the Ansbacher affair but rather the start of a new phase where those involved are brought to justice. "All cases of tax evasion, criminal conspiracy, and breaches of company and banking law must be followed up with prosecutions," Mr Broughan said.

Labour TD for Cork North Central, Kathleen Lynch, last night said the report was an extremely valid exercise which raised important issues which should be debated. "It has exposed a privileged elite who believed that taxes truly were for little people," Deputy Lynch said.

The Opposition is also expected to call for an investigation into the controversial sale of Glen Ding woods.

Cement Roadstone Holdings (CRH) bought the mineral-rich lands in Co Wicklow from the State in 1992 in a purchase which was never put out to tender. Several directors of CRH were Ansbacher account holders, although last weekend's report found the company was not corporately impugned. The Moriarty tribunal investigating political corruption is under pressure to look at the transaction.