Dáil Report: The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, angrily demanded in the Dáil yesterday that the Labour Party leader withdraw allegations about the manner in which she finished the Ansbacher investigation into tax evasion.
During very sharp exchanges, Mr Pat Rabbitte suggested that the investigations were terminated "not because they had come to fruition but rather because they might".
He asked why did the Tánaiste want the closure of the Ansbacher investigation into three companies where "some of the most powerful in our society are engaged in tax evasion that makes Ray Burke's involvement look like a corner sweet shop".
Ms Harney said he was "making very serious allegations in relation to my integrity and I'd like him to withdraw them".
She added: "You're suggesting that I closed down the inquiry because it was revealing some information that I did not like. Now Deputy Rabbitte you'd better withdraw that. I have acted properly throughout my career in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment." The sharp exchanges arose during leaders' questions when Ms Harney stood in for the Taoiseach, who was meeting the British Prime Minister in London. Mr Rabbitte suggested that the tax evasion by former minister Ray Burke was "probably minor" compared to that engaged in by Ansbacher depositors.
Mr Rabbitte asked why Ms Harney had issued a directive a couple of weeks before she left office as minister for enterprise for the authorised officer to cease his investigative duties and to write up his report? He also asked had she received representations from inside or outside the Cabinet and if the authorised officer agreed that the investigation should stop.
"Isn't it the case that after all the money spent on the Ansbacher inquiry that very little in fact has been done? And even the question of costs has been settled on the basis of the State paying their part in it," he said.
Ms Harney said the "issue of bringing that inquiry to an end arose at the start of last year and not a couple of weeks before I left office".
She felt that "seven years on, it was time for both investigations to be brought to a conclusion. I was under the impression that they would be concluded an awful lot earlier". Much of the material was sent to the tribunals because she felt it was "more relevant to their work than to an inquiry under company law".
Mr Rabbitte asked Ms Harney why, after building her reputation on investigations into Ansbacher, "would you want to cut off those guys being investigated and being subjected to the whole rigours of the law".
When Ms Harney demanded that he withdraw the allegations, he replied: "Don't get up on your high horse, just because you're surrounded by sainthood." He said she should answer the questions. Ms Harney said: "I'm no more of a saint than you are. Nobody made representations to me either inside the Cabinet or outside the Cabinet." Asked where the report was now, she said that Mr Rabbitte would have to ask the current Minister. She did not know its status but it was not concluded at the end of September. The authorised officer did not agree and wanted to continue the investigation, she said.
The Tánaiste said that she had sought legal advice on the issue and the advice of the secretary general of the Department and any decisions she made were based on that advice.
