Mr Michael Irwin, the accountant who was heavily criticised in the Blayney report in July, has resigned from his position as chief executive of ADM Londis.
A source said the resignation, which was communicated to the Londis board last week, was not connected to the Blayney report but rather had to do with commercial matters.
Mr Irwin, a former chief accountant with Dunnes Stores, was "reprimanded" by the inquiry established by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland in the wake of the 1997 McCracken (Dunnes Payments) Tribunal.
The Blayney Committee established by the institute decided to censure Mr Irwin, a more negative finding, but this was reduced to a reprimand on appeal. The findings were published in late July.
The appeal committee found that Mr Irwin had "failed to take steps to prevent certain invoices, which he knew to be false, from passing for payment into the accounting system of the company in which he worked, knowing that their passing into the system was likely to cause, or facilitate, the wrongful evasion of tax and the misstatement of financial accounts."
This finding related to the Dunnes group and invoices connected with the former minister, Mr Michael Lowry. Mr Irwin has not commented publicly since the findings, which concerned a number of accountants, were issued.
Mr Irwin has been at the head of ADM Londis since leaving the Dunnes group in the mid-1990s. A number of other figures from the Dunnes group moved with him to the retail co-operative. Mr Irwin has not been replaced as yet and the group is being run by two of its senior executives.
In May, Londis bought the Topshop chain of convenience stores from Tedcastle Holdings, creating an amalgamated chain with 380 outlets. At the time of the takeover Mr Irwin said: "We are looking forward to developing further over the coming years".
In 2002 ADM Londis had profits, before rebates to its retailer members, of €7.88 million, representing an increase of 23.7 per cent on the previous year. The company's turnover increased year-on-year by 13.4 per cent to €258 million.
The company said in May that it intended to grow by approximately 60 outlets during 2003.
