Mr Tony Spollen: returns to DIRT inquiry

The Dail inquiry into the evasion of DIRT tax through bogus non-resident bank accounts moves into its final days with the focus on the disputed amnesty AIB claims it secured from the Revenue in 1991.

AIB executives continue giving their evidence to the inquiry today.

The committee has also summoned a further four bank executives to explain what they knew about the widescale abuse of non-resident accounts between 1986 and 1998.

Much of the day's proceedings are likely to be taken up with testimony from AIB's in-house tax advisers who claim to have negotiated a massive tax write-off with the Revenue eight years ago.

Two of the bank's advisers, Dr Donal de Buitleir and Mr Jimmy O'Mahony, are former Revenue officials and will be asked to detail for the committee the terms under which any amnesty was brokered.

The bank has stated it never received written confirmation of the deal from the Revenue Commissioners but insists it has contemporaneous notes from a series of meetings with Revenue officials which support its claim.

The Revenue rejects the bank's claims.

The committee will also hear from AIB chairman Mr Lochlainn Quinn and group chief executive Mr Tom Mulcahy.

The bank's former head of internal audit, Mr Tony Spollen, will also attend.

The committee's legal team have been considering two allegations made by Mr Spollen last week to decide whether they are relevant to its inquiry.

He told the committee the bank had orchestrated a share price support operation in the 1980s for the exploration company, Dana Petroleum, by transferring shares into its staff pension funds following a poor take-up of the shares in the stock market.

He also alleged that former chief executive Mr Gerry Scanlan had instructed him to change the contents of an audit report.

The bank has denied this allegation.

AIB will be the last financial institution to give evidence to the committee.

Former Revenue chairman Mr Cathal Mac Domhnaill and the current chairman, Mr Dermot Quigley, will also be recalled this week.

By the weekend, the committee hopes to have moved the inquiry to cross-examination, where counsel for AIB and the Revenue will have the opportunity to question the various witnesses on the disputed amnesty.

Both organisations are represented by former Attorney Generals - Mr Dermot Gleeson acting for AIB and Mr Eoghan Fitzsimons acting for the Revenue.