SÉAMUS PÁIRCÉIR;SÉAMUS PÁIRCÉIR, who has died aged 83, was a former chairman of the Revenue Commissioners. However, after he retired his dealings in that role, with Charles Haughey and the former taoiseach's benefactor Ben Dunne, prompted scrutiny of his conduct by both the McCracken and Moriarty tribunals.
He became a tax consultant to Ben Dunne after leaving office in 1987, having led the Revenue’s dealings with Dunne and the Dunne family trust. While still in office he met Dunne and discussed a possible settlement in relation to one of the largest tax bills issued during his period in office.
The first of a series of meetings was set up following intervention by the then taoiseach, Charles Haughey, the Moriarty tribunal was told in 2005.
Explaining why he had not told the McCracken tribunal about these meetings, he said he did not regard Haughey’s request to meet Dunne as constituting a representation or submission, the words used in the letter from the McCracken tribunal in 1997.
The outcome of the negotiations between Dunne and Páircéir was an offer to settle a £38.8 million tax bill for £16 million, the amount offered by the Dunne family trust when the bill was first issued and that had not been accepted by the Revenue.
The offer by Páircéir, which was not taken up, constituted a “real and tangible benefit” to Dunne and was “directly consequent on Haughey’s actions”, the Moriarty tribunal found.
Born in Cork, Séamus Páircéir was educated at the North Monastery CBS. A fluent Irish speaker, he was involved in Irish-language drama in the city. Having joined the Civil Service, he moved to Dublin. In 1954 he attended a meeting to form An Chomhairle Amharclainne, to foster drama in Irish. An actor, and director, in 1958 he played the part of Leslie, the British soldier taken hostage by the IRA, in the first production of Brendan Behan’s An Giall at the Damer theatre.
He was appointed to the board of the Revenue Commissioners in 1980, having served as director of establishments; he became chairman in 1984. That was when he learned of a £300,000 payment made to Haughey by the Gallagher Group in 1980 after the group collapsed, and which was not declared to the Revenue. The payment was described as a forfeited deposit paid in respect of lands at Kinsealy and on income from the sale of a stud farm in Co Meath in 1977.
Páircéir told the Moriarty tribunal that he entertained some doubts as to the validity of the transaction, suspecting that there was a possibility that it was a cover for a donation.
There was some sensitivity given the taxpayer’s identity; the Revenue did not exist in a vacuum. Despite non-disclosure, subsequent lack of co-operation from Haughey and suspicions regarding the Gallagher deal, he did not feel the case warranted further investigation. He said the Revenue’s investigation branch would have had to contend with [Haughey’s] “extraordinary powers of resistance” and get “themselves into various court actions”.
He inquired no further into the rest of Haughey’s tax affairs, and insisted that he treated him the same as any other taxpayer.
Following his retirement from the Revenue, Séamus Páircéir held a number of high-profile positions and appointments. In 1991 he resigned as chairman of the Custom House Dock Development Authority after Haughey said on radio that he should “step aside”, pending an inquiry into dealings concerning the former Johnston Mooney and O’Brien site at Ballsbridge, Dublin.
Páircéir was a director of United Property Holdings, which bought the site from Johnston Mooney and O’Brien and sold it on before it eventually came to be owned by Telecom Éireann. Haughey’s comments caused him to resign. Dick Walsh in this newspaper described his treatment as “rough justice”.
In 1995 he was appointed chairman of an international committee to advise on the development of Dublin’s International Financial Services Centre (IFSC). He also worked as a consultant with the IDA in connection with the promotion of the IFSC.
In 1999 he was appointed as an independent exams appeal commissioner by the Department of Education. Also that year, he told the Dirt Inquiry that in the 1980s he had believed that bank officials would not participate in tax evasion but had been “obviously wrong”.
On the publication of the Moriarty tribunal report in 2006 he said he was aggrieved by its findings, but was too ill to talk publicly about the matter.
His wife Mary and sons Seán, Brian and Michael survive him.
Séamus Páircéir: born 1927; died January 26th, 2011