The Revenue Commissioners is trying to get access to the Panama Papers by way of the international network of tax authorities, a spokeswoman has said.
A number of tax authorities are understood to have been approached by a source with access to the material and one country is reported to have bought documents relevant to its citizens.
The Panama Papers are an enormous cache of documents in electronic form from the files of one of the world’s largest providers of offshore services, Mossack Fonseca, a law firm based in Panama but with offices around the globe.
The publication of stories based on the documents, which were leaked to Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with The Irish Times and other media groups through the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, caused controversy around the world earlier this year.
Sources
In the wake of the publication, the Revenue Commissioners asked
The Irish Times
for access to the documents, but the request was declined for reasons to do with the protection of sources.
Last week it was reported that Denmark had paid approximately €1.3 million for access to files concerning up to 600 Danes.
A Revenue spokeswoman said it had not been approached about buying the data.
She said it was “aware that some tax administrations may have purchased the leaked Panama data. We will, through our participation in the Joint International Taskforce on Shared Intelligence and Collaboration Network, continue to monitor developments with a view to obtaining access to the full documentation”.
