Moriarty Tribunal - Haughey era sleaze leaves a bad taste

REVELATIONS of clandestine introductions between the Taoiseach of the day, the chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, and a prominent businessman, whose companies faced a multi million pound tax bill, are the stuff of a Mafia novel.

Disclosures at yesterday’s special session of the Moriarty Tribunal reek of golden circle dealings and point to a culture of concealment at the very top of the State’s tax body. Hard questions must be asked about the intervention of disgraced ex-Taoiseach Charles J Haughey on behalf of supermarket owner Ben Dunne in effecting the introduction to Revenue Commission chairman, Seamus Paircéir.

The key question is why Mr Haughey felt obliged to ask Mr Paircéir to meet Ben Dunne at all when, for two years previously, the tax official had been in personal contact with Dunne Stores accountants over the company’s tax bill of nearly £39 million. Why was the Taoiseach’s intervention necessary?