Ansbacher names may be deleted from Dáil record

A powerful Dáil committee is seeking to delete the names of politicians accused of having Ansbacher-linked accounts from the official record and haul in a TD who named them for a private dressing-down.

The cross-party Committee on Procedure and Privileges made the decision in response to Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald naming six ex-politicians as being listed in a tax evaders dossier.

Speaking in the Dáil late last month, Ms McDonald said ex-ministers Des O’Malley, Ray MacSharry, Gerard Collins, Richie Ryan and Maire Geoghegan Quinn, and an “S Barrett”, were identified in a whistle-blower report on the Ansbacher scandal.

While the names were obtained from a report the public accounts committee has privately examined, all five ministers and the family of the late TD Sylvester Barrett subsequently denied they were tax evaders.

A private meeting of the CPP earlier this week said the names may have to be deleted from the record.

The cross-party body —which always meets in private — will now write to Ms McDonald about its intention to “correct” the Dáil record, and ask her to attend a future meeting on the matter.

After this meeting occurs, Ms McDonald will be asked to read into the Dáil a “correction” to the record.