In February 1987 in the run-up to the general election of that year, Charles Haughey was once again asking for a popular mandate to be elected Taoiseach.
Under the slogan "There is a Better Way", Mr Haughey launched his Progress for Recovery policy document in Jury's Hotel, Dublin. In a follow-up interview with the magazine, Aspect, Mr Haughey spoke of his plans for the economy and he also gave his views on tax evasion.
Aspect: You are putting a lot of faith in self-assessment by taxpayers, including farmers. Presumably you will have to follow this through with penalties for evasion.
Haughey: There will be vigorous penalties for evasion. The penalties are set out in the Report of the Commission on Taxation. They are particularly important for self-assessment which can only work in Irish circumstances if you apply sufficient penalties to ensure that nobody cheats the system.
Aspect: Does that mean you will jail tax dodgers?
Haughey: If necessary, jail sentences will be used. But mind you, with business people money penalties are usually enough. We intend to adopt the Fifth Report of the Commission on Taxation dealing with appropriate penalties.
Ten months after giving this interview, Mr Haughey received £182,630 in sterling, the first of five payments from Ben Dunne.
The money was passed through various banks in Dublin, London and the Cayman Islands in what the McCracken tribunal decided was "an attempt to ensure that the Revenue authorities would never know of the gifts".
The tribunal report said that if it was permissible for a member of the Dail, in particular a Taoiseach, to receive gifts it "would inevitably lead in some cases to bribery and corruption".
