The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, has called for a constitutional ban on future tax amnesties, seeking to identify his party with public anger over tax evasion in the lead-up to the two forthcoming by-elections.
At a press conference at Cloghran, north Dublin, designed to raise the profile of the party's Dublin North candidate, Mr Philip Jenkinson, Mr Bruton said tax evasion was the main national issue coming up on the doorsteps.
"The electorate is scandalised by the evidence of systematic tax evasion through the use of offshore banking facilities", he said, "and they believe that this may only be the tip of the iceberg.
"This evasion was fostered by the decision to have two tax amnesties", he went on. "Tax amnesties encouraged people to keep money offshore in the hope that yet another amnesty would enable it to be eventually brought home without tax. Many people are still keeping money offshore in the hope that this may happen a third time".
He said that when he was minister for finance in 1986, a tax amnesty had been suggested but he decided against as "it would offend against the idea of equity". Yet a year later his successor introduced one.
That first amnesty was introduced in 1988 by the then minister for finance, Mr Albert Reynolds, in the Fianna Fail minority government led by Mr Charles Haughey. The second was introduced in 1993 by Mr Bertie Ahern as minister for finance in the Fianna Fail-Labour government led by Mr Reynolds. Mr Ahern let it be known at the time that he personally opposed the introduction of the amnesty.
Mr Bruton said yesterday he would like to see the by-elections take place "soon", but he would also like enough time for all the voters of Dublin North to get to know the party candidate, Mr Jenkinson. Asked how long that would take he said: "About four to five weeks". Fine Gael had won 34 per cent of the vote in the constituency in the presidential election, and on that basis he thought it "highly probable that we will win this election".
The Labour Party appears likely to move the writ for Limerick East shortly, setting a poll date of March 12th. If this happens, Fianna Fail will move the Dublin North writ to allow that poll take place on the same day.