A retired Supreme Court judge, Mr Justice Blayney, and a senior accountant and auditor, Mr Tom Grace, were appointed by the High Court in March as inspectors under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 1990, and asked to inquire into National Irish Bank Ltd.

Subsequently, following a confidential report by an authorised officer, Mr Martin Cosgrove, the Tanaiste successfully petitioned the courts that the two inspectors also be appointed to National Irish Bank Financial Services Ltd.

This is the company which marketed offshore bonds which were not authorised for sale in this State. Some £50 million was invested in the bonds, and it is suspected that some at least of this was money the investors wished to hide from the Revenue.

The inspectors' inquiries are being hindered by court proceedings taken by staff of NIB who oppose having to answer all questions put to them.

The High Court has ruled in favour of the inspectors, and the staff have appealed the matter to the Supreme Court. That appeal was heard on November 4th and 5th, and the court reserved its decision.

Because of the question mark hanging over the inspectors' right to question staff, it is not possible to estimate when they are likely to report. The reports of High Court inspectors may be published and are covered by privilege.

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is responsible for regulating the insurance sector. In June a departmental examination was initiated into sales practices at Irish Life, in particular into allegations that sales staff were involved in "churning".

Churning is when staff encourage customers to sell old life assurance policies and take out new ones, even though this is of no benefit to the customers. The motive is to increase the staff's commission income. The books and records of Irish Life are being examined.

Earlier this month Ms Harney told the Dail that documents examined to date had revealed no evidence of any endorsement or encouragement of churning by management.

The Department has written to all life assurance companies about churning. "The responses from individual companies indicated that the level of sophistication in uncovering and dealing with malpractice varies from company to company," the Minister told the Dail.

She said that in regard to detecting churning "I would like to take the opportunity to inform the House that the Parliamentary Draughtsman's Office in the Office of the Attorney General is currently examining my proposals to introduce life assurance transparency regulations."

In July an inspector appointed the previous October under Section 14 of the Companies Act, 1990, reported to Ms Harney in relation to Bula Resources.

Mr Lyndon MacCann found that the former chairman and chief executive of Bula, Jim Stanley, was the owner of a British Virgin Islands company, Mir Oil Development Ltd, with which Bula concluded a deal in 1995. Mr Stanley negotiated the deal on behalf of Bula.

As part of the deal 101 million Bula shares, worth about £2.5 million, were transferred to Mir Oil. Mr Stanley, who sold Bula shares worth £660,000 sterling before the shares became the subject of a High Court freezing order, is now living in Moscow.