The Jobs Minister says he believes new allegations of tax evasion by politicians have already been dealt with.
In a statement, Richard Bruton says the allegations given to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) earlier this week have been investigated in the past.
A dossier containing the allegations was compiled by a civil servant in Bruton's department, and sent to the Public Accounts Committee, earlier this week.
The Minister says he is limited in what he can say as the issues "may be the subject of investigations and future court cases", but states that the files covering the issues were sent to the Gardaí, the Revenue Commissioners, the Director of Corporate Enforcement and two Tribunals between 2004 and 2010. He adds that he understands "the Gardai investigated them at that time."
He says the Director of Public Prosecutions has already received several files on the subject, and it is now up to her to consider any further action.
Sinn Féin Deputy Leader Mary Lou McDonald says Enda Kenny has several questions to answer about how the allegations were handled by Government:
The Irish Times has reported that the civil servant who provided the dossier to the PAC had a role in investigating offshore bank accounts known as the Ansbacher accounts.
The report says that the official was asked in 1998 to investigate tax evasion schemes by former Tánaiste Mary Harney.
In the covering letter of his dossier, the civil servant states that he was asked to terminate his investigations - while they “were ongoing and before they were complete” - by Ms Harney in June 2004
The Garda press office said the allegations were fully investigated and a file was sent to the DPP.
A member of the PAC has said a current minister could be called in to explain why they did not act on allegations of tax evasion among politicians.
Fianna Fáil's Sean Fleming said a dossier given to PAC members this week came from within a Government Department - and was probably known to the minister in charge.
TDs will meet next Wednesday to discuss the revelations.
Originally posted at 10.28am
