Reaction: The latest AIB controversy is more serious than all previous scandals, including the 1980s bogus non-resident accounts, the Tánaiste, Ms Harney declared last night.
"I think that that is very, very serious and perhaps more serious than anything we have learned to date, and deeply shocking I have to say.
If anyone who was on a semi-state board was involved then this would not be acceptable, she added, saying the public should be told the names of those involved.
"This is going to be a real test for the new regulatory authority that we have put in place," said the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Employment.
"I must say that it is really shocking that this could have gone at that level in the institution after all we have gone through in recent years in relation to bogus non-resident accounts.
She acknowledged a public demand that the report by the International Financial Services Regulatory Authority into AIB's conduct will be published "as quickly as possible".
The tax evasions and preferential share dealings come on foot of revelations that the AIB systematically overcharged foreign exchange customers and trust fund holders.
"I think in many ways that this is far more serious than some of the other matters that have come to our attention, some of them have been genuine errors, but this was no error," she told RTÉ.
"I therefore regard it as far more serious. The consequences of it could be far more draconian than anything that has come to light to date, mainly because we hear that they were very senior management involved in this.
"Therefore, I believe that that says a lot about the culture that operated in Ireland and I believe that people are getting fed up of all of these revelations coming into the public domain.
The Government had set up the IFSRA and the new Director of Corporate Enforcement to ensure that Irish business operates by a new regulatory regime.
"We now have a regime in place in Ireland to make sure that this cannot happen in the future. We need to see the outcome in the public domain of the deliberations of the regulatory authority, difficult and all as that may be.
"This is a challenge for us to show that things have changed in Ireland and that the regulators are not going to tolerate a situation where the laws are only going to be enforced on one group of people in our society, but not on others in our society." During the DIRT inquiry, the bank, she said, "had made a strong case" that it could not be held responsible for the actions of all of its customers because they could not "check them all out, they really did not know".
"I must say that that really doesn't stand up if the people at the top at that institution were also involved in offshore tax evasion and preferential share dealings," Ms Harney said.
Meanwhile speaking in London the Minister for Finance told RTÉ that the practices which have been uncovered at AIBIM have damaged the reputation of the bank. He said it was "very disappointing" that higher executives were involved in "somewhat dubious practices".
