What the report says:The Revenue was reluctant to confront Mr Haughey and let his liabilities drift without recourse to interest or penalties even when meaningful responses were not provided by agents of the former taoiseach, the tribunal report states.
"It is understandable that it was not easy at the time to address the contingency of a very powerful political leader whose co-operation and disclosure left a great deal to be desired, but even in
retrospect the apparent passivity shown in aspects of the relationship appears inordinate," says Mr Justice Moriarty.
The report says Mr Haughey dealt with Revenue on the footing that the sole source of his income for tax purposes was his State entitlements.
"This was accepted by Revenue notwithstanding the clear discrepancy between that income and Mr Haughey's evident lifestyle, of which Revenue was fully cognisant, and further notwithstanding significant payments of capital gains tax well in excess of the entirety of Mr Haughey's then gross annual income made in the late 1980s, and the source of which was never queried by Revenue."
Noting that the tax authorities became significantly more thorough after the McCracken tribunal reported on the former taoiseach's affairs in 1997, the judge says the approach made eminent sense and was overdue.
A £1.01 million settlement from Mr Haughey in 2000 represented a "reasonable and satisfactory outcome" and Revenue adopted the "correct" approach in talks that yielded a final settlement of €5 million in 2003.