Publican makes €1.36m tax settlement

A Kilkenny publican who made a tax settlement of €1

A Kilkenny publican who made a tax settlement of €1.36 million made the largest of the 111 tax settlements that feature on the latest quarterly list of tax defaulters published today.

Seamus Delaney, of Patrick Street, Kilkenny, who owns a pub called Jas Delaney's, Patrick Street, Kilkenny, paid €433,788 in under declared income tax and Vat, and €931,064 in interest and penalties, in a case that arose under the Revenue Commissioners' insurance products inquiry.

A former independent councillor from Nenagh, Co Tipperary, Joseph O'Connor, made a settlement of €36,865 after a Revenue audit case. In December 2003 Mr O'Connor's business made a €2.8 million settlement with the Revenue.

Mr O'Connor is the founder of a supermarket and shopping centre firm, O'Connor's Nenagh Shopping Centre Ltd. He also has property interests in the town.

The list published today shows O'Connor's Nenagh Shopping Centre Ltd made a settlement of €169,225 arising from the underdeclaration of VAT and Paye/Prsi, in a case arising from the Revenue's insurance products inquiries.

Bartholomew Dunne, of Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co Dublin, a retired publican and the former owner of Bartley Dunne's pub on Lwr Stephen's Street, Dublin, made a settlement of €36,000 in underdeclared income tax and interest, as part of the Revenue's offshore funds inquiries.

Sherland Entertainments, the company behind Eden Restaurant in Dublin, the café bar deli group, and other bars and restaurants, made a settlement of €158,815 arising from the underdeclaration of Vat and arising from a Revenue audit.

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The company is run by Jonathan or Jay Bourke, who has worked as a presenter on the RTE series, The Mentor, and his business partner Eoin Foyle.

The latest list published in Oiris Oifigiuil covers the period January to March of this year. The total value of the settlements listed is slightly in excess of €20 million.

The list is of all settlements of greater than certain threshold amounts where the interest and penalties involved exceed 15 per cent of the tax due and where the taxpayer had not, prior to a Revenue investigation, disclosed the tax liability.

Of the 111 settlements:

· 6 settlements totalling €1.55million relate to Bogus Non-Resident holders,

· 25 settlements totalling €5.17million relate to Revenue investigations into Offshore Funds

· 30 settlements totalling €8.10million relate to Revenue's Single Premium Insurance Products Cases.

Colm Keena

Colm Keena

Colm Keena is an Irish Times journalist. He was previously legal-affairs correspondent and public-affairs correspondent