Taoiseach happy with outcome of tax amnesty

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has said he is happy with the fact that the Revenue Commissioners only collected one-quarter of the sum they were expecting because of the latest tax amnesty.

When announcing the amnesty, the Revenue said it expected to collect £700m in unpaid taxes and interest from bogus non-resident bank account holders.

However, many of these tax cheats failed to come forward and the Revenue only collected £176m.

The State must now pursue other bogus account holders through the courts.