He was an unsuccessful candidate for Dáil Éireann at the 1973 general election in Dublin South-West and lost again in the 1976 by-election in the same constituency, to Labour Party's Brendan Halligan.
[2] This was granted despite strong opposition by Ireland's national carrier Aer Lingus, and from Fianna Fáil and other left-wing parties.
The scandal resulted Allied Irish Banks being forced to reach a settlement of €90 million with the Revenue Commissioners in respect of DIRT evasion in 2000 in addition to thousands of tax-evaders being prosecuted including the former Minister for Justice Pádraig Flynn.
The Mitchell inquiry was "shocked and horrified" at the "careless and reckless" manner in which the Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland had quoted false statistics to the Public Accounts subcommittee.
Though regarded in politics as one of Fine Gael's "survivors", who held onto his seat amid major boundary changes, constituency changes and by attracting working class votes in a party whose appeal was primarily middle class, Mitchell lost his Dublin Central seat at the 2002 general election.
That election witnessed a large-scale collapse in the Fine Gael vote, with the party dropping from 54 to 31 seats in Dáil Éireann.
Mitchell had earlier had a liver transplant in an attempt to beat a rare form of cancer which had cost the lives of a number of his siblings.
His former constituency colleague and rival, Bertie Ahern, described Jim Mitchell as having made an "outstanding contribution to Irish politics."