Fine Gael has important questions to answer in relation to tax evasion and under-the-counter payments made to staff over an eleven year period. Issues also arise in connection with its handling of so-called pick-me-up payments by various companies before 1998. Last Friday, under pressure from the media, a statement from Fine Gael purported to set out the precise position in relation to the Revenue Commissioners where both types of payment were concerned. It now transpires the statement was misleading and factually inaccurate. The matter is likely to be raised at today's meeting of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party.
The tax offences took place before Mr Noonan became party leader. It would appear that he made every effort to speed their resolution with the Revenue Commissioners. That said, his behaviour in recent days has been reminiscent of the smear tactics he accused Fianna Fail of using in the past. When Fine Gael was found to have evaded tax and engaged in under-the-counter payments to staff, his response was to challenge Fianna Fail to say it had not behaved in a similar fashion. The response was described as outrageous by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern. Fianna Fail sources insisted the party had never engaged in under-the-counter payments and was not under investigation by the Revenue.
In its statement of last Friday, Fine Gael said that under-the-counter payments to staff had ended in 1995. That was wrong. It now admits the practice continued until 1997. But it says all due taxes have been paid on the basis of voluntary disclosure. This assertion is contested by the Revenue Commissioners. In seeking to minimise the issue, the statement referred to "petty cash payments" without quantifying the amount paid at £120,000. It found it impossible to identify precisely when the practice had commenced and who had authorised it. As an effort at laying embarrassing ghosts to rest, it was a shambles, compounded by Mr Noonan's intervention.
Not surprisingly, Fianna Fail has responded aggressively to Fine Gael's attempt to shift the focus of attention by suggesting it wasn't alone in its antisocial behaviour. Specifically, it challenged Mr Noonan to review the appointment of Mr Finbar Fitzpatrick as Fine Gael's new director of elections because he held the position of party general secretary during most of the time during which under-the-counter payments were made. A number of Fianna Fail TDs, keenly aware of Fine Gael's response to embarrassing tax disclosures in relation to Mr Denis Foley and Ms Beverley Cooper Flynn, demanded that Mr Noonan should face up to the issues that had emerged within Fine Gael.
Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Labour Party were all identified by the Flood Tribunal, in 1998, as having benefitted from pick-me-up payments, a system whereby companies and corporations directly defrayed election expenses incurred by the political parties. Those donors have subsequently settled their tax liabilities with the Revenue Commissioners. Fine Gael, however, appears to have been the only political party to have engaged in under-the-counter payments to its workers. Mr Noonan should have taken remedial action and apologised for past behaviour rather than engage in political muck-throwing.