Any dealings that might take place between the Taoiseach or any other public representative, on the one hand, and the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) on the other, were confidential in nature, a spokesman for Bertie Ahern said yesterday.
The Taoiseach's spokesman was responding to Opposition queries as to whether or not Mr Ahern had submitted a certificate to the SIPO indicating that his tax affairs were in order, as is required of all TDs and Senators.
"Dealings between an individual and SIPO are of a confidential nature," the Taoiseach's spokesman said.
The Irish Timesunderstands that two complaints were made to SIPO last year about Mr Ahern but neither of them was upheld. The spokesman said the Government had "no knowledge" of any fresh complaint about the Taoiseach at this stage.
"If the Taoiseach was approached by SIPO he would co-operate. He has always co-operated with these statutory organisations and to suggest otherwise is wrong."
Earlier, Fine Gael Senator Eugene Regan challenged the Taoiseach to clarify his tax affairs in light of correspondence between Mr Ahern and the Revenue Commissioners published in the Irish Mail on Sunday.
"The fundamental issue is the misleading of the Dáil, the public and the electorate at a very critical time before the general election. The Taoiseach made specific statements that there were no tax issues arising in relation to these alleged 'dig-out' loans or whip-arounds that he allegedly received in 1994-95," Senator Regan told The Irish Times.
"It is evident that Revenue were unaware of some of these matters, and it was only after the Bryan Dobson interview on RTÉ that Revenue got into correspondence with the Taoiseach in relation to these revelations.
"The Taoiseach said in the Dáil that he had cleared these matters with 'the tax authorities' and when subsequently Revenue said they had no record of this, he apparently replied in correspondence that he meant 'tax advisers'. But what is on the record of the Dáil is 'tax authorities', so we were all led to believe that this was a non-issue.
"In relation to SIPO, all TDs and Senators have to issue a statutory declaration and obtain a special tax-clearance certificate and present it to the commission. The position is when you make the statutory declaration you are declaring all your affairs are in order. Has the Taoiseach complied with this requirement? If he has, on what basis, given the outstanding issues with Revenue? If he hasn't, why the delay?
"The whole idea of the certificates and statutory declaration is that we have to set an example to the ordinary taxpayer and show that at least Oireachtas members are tax-compliant. Any fudge on this from the Taoiseach of the land is entirely unacceptable," said Senator Regan, who is Fine Gael's Seanad spokesman on justice.
Interviewed on RTÉ's Morning Irelandon Monday, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said the Taoiseach "needs to make a full statement about his tax affairs".
At the same time, he accepted that correspondence between an individual taxpayer and the Revenue "should not be published".
Mr Gilmore regretted that the Opposition would not have an opportunity of questioning Mr Ahern until the end of January.
Vincent Browne: page 12
