Revenue can make Ahern verdict before tribunal ends

The Revenue Commissioners will not have to wait until the Mahon Tribunal concludes its business to decide whether the Taoiseach has paid all his taxes, the Dáil heard today.

In a dramatic contradiction of earlier comments on the issue, Bertie Ahern admitted a decision by the tax authorities was not directly linked to the work of the public inquiry.

Mr Ahern, who is due before the Mahon Tribunal again on February 21 and 22, reiterated that he and his advisors believed he was fully tax compliant.

He told the Dáil during Leaders’ Questions: “It is not correct if I said so. I wasn’t correct. I can’t recall if I did say it. But I didn’t meant to say it - that these issues could not be dealt with until the end of the Mahon Tribunal.

“That is not what Revenue said. Revenue said that they were in part of the normal process dealing with these issues.”

The Taoiseach said that neither he nor his tax or legal advisors had been in a position to respond to ongoing inaccurate media leaks of his tax affairs.

Mr Ahern has until February 24 to lodge a tax clearance certificate with the Standards in Public Office Commission as it is within nine months of the general election.

If Mr Ahern cannot produce the certificate, he must submit a statement of application acknowledging outstanding tax issues.

He reiterated that he and his tax advisors had comprehensively co-operated with Revenue’s investigations into his tax affairs.

“We have answered every single issue that they asked,” he said.

The Dáil will tonight begin debating a Fine Gael-originated motion of confidence in the Mahon Tribunal.

The Government has already tabled its own compromise text which is expected to be voted through tomorrow evening after a lively debate.

Speaking as the Dáil resumed after its six-week Christmas recess, Mr Ahern said the Government had only stopped working for 12 days.

“I finished up Government business on the day before Christmas and returned to work on January 4,” he said.

“I admit that is a few days off. But I don’t think the Government was away from the issues for any time.”

The Fine Gael motion was designed to embarrass the three Government parties over their differing attitudes towards the Mahon Tribunal.

Fianna Fáil ministers had attacked the inquiry's "prurient" cross-examination of the Taoiseach's marital separation but the Green Party and the Progressive Democrats both expressed confidence in Mahon's work.

The Government tonight published the text of a counter motion painstakingly agreed by all Cabinet members in recent days.

The Government motion urged the Tribunal to continue its work and said it looked forward to receiving its report as soon as possible so that the Dáil could debate and deliberate on its findings.

It also condemned the leaking of Tribunal documents as a breach of confidentiality and said it infringed the rights of those affected.

The motion also said it supported appropriate actions to investigate such leaks and went on to reaffirm the right of witnesses to engage in confidential correspondence with the Tribunal.