O’Brien: I pay all my taxes in Ireland

Businessman Denis O’Brien told the High Court yesterday he pays his taxes in Ireland and in all countries he and his company Digicel are connected with.

To say he was a tax exile because he lives abroad was not correct, as he spent three quarters of his time abroad because the Digicel Group, of which he is chairman, has interests from Fiji to the Caribbean, he said.

Mr O’Brien was giving evidence on his third day in the witness box in his defamation action over an Irish Daily Mail article which he says accused him of being a hypocrite for his efforts to assist in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti in 2010.