SF challenged on alleged €250m in US

MINISTER FOR Justice Dermot Ahern has challenged Sinn Féin to give the Government "a bit of a hand" by repatriating some of the alleged €250 million the party has "stashed away" in US banks.

Mr Ahern told the Dáil that Sinn Féin had not denied the claim "so I suppose it's true."

He was responding to Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caolain's Dáil Budget speech in which the Cavan-Monaghan TD said it was "amazing that the Minister for finance could keep a straight face when he described the Budget as a call to patriotic action".

Mr Ó Caoláin asked "where were the calls to the wealthy to be patriotic during the Celtic Tiger years? Many of the so-called patriots, the tycoons and multi-millionaires who were pampered by the Government, are tax exiles who pose as great Irishmen and women when they are in this country but who hide their riches away in tax havens so they do not have to pay their fair share here.''

The Sinn Féin deputy had also quoted James Connolly on patriotism. "True patriotism seeks the welfare of each in the happiness of all, and is inconsistent with the selfish desire for worldly wealth which can only be gained by the exploitation of less favoured fellow-mortals."

Mr Ahern said "it's hard to listen to Deputy Ó Caoláin. I read in the newspapers recently that Sinn Féin has 250 million stashed away in US banks.

It hasn't been denied so I suppose it's true. But perhaps Deputy Ó Caoláin and his party could give us a bit of a hand and repatriate some of that money."

During his own Budget speech the Minister said despite restrictions on public sector recruitment, the Government intends to take on 400 new Garda recruits during 2009, in addition to the almost 1,100 already in training as well as retaining 4.6 million hours of overtime worth some €80 million.

He said "our greatest priority is the fight against crime. We need to secure the effective capacity of the organisations at the heart of that effort. That is why I have put the money where it should be. That is the choice I made, and I make no apology for it."

Some 21 million was being ring-fenced for Operation Anvil.

"This will make it possible to continue with a wide range of intensive policing activity, with a particular emphasis on tackling organised gangland crime. There is no question of the Government going soft on the godfathers of crime and this level of ring-fenced funding is a clear indication of our steely resolve."

Mr Ó Caoláin said "the wealthy were allowed to avoid tax in a myriad of different ways while ordinary PAYE workers bore the burden, as they always have".

"Fianna Fáil-led Governments and their friends, the property speculators and developers, the stock-brokers and the bankers, have created this massive economic mess."

It would be the people "who will be made to pay the price".