Tax evasion an attack on democracy, says Harney

TANAISTE Mary Harney yesterday described the systematic evasion of tax by some Ansbacher account holders as an attack on democracy itself.

In a special resitting of the Dáil to debate the Anbacher Report, Ms Harney said the scam denied the State of vital funds during the 1980s, but insisted that business and political culture had now moved on.

“A State that does not collect its taxes through lack of will or authority, or as a result of a degeneration of its political culture, is a failed State,” she told the Dáil yesterday.