Bankers who opened accounts may be called

The Public Accounts Committee is considering calling as witnesses bank officials who dealt with individual depositors opening non-resident accounts.

Mr Jim Mitchell, chairman of the DIRT inquiry, said the committee was keeping open the option of calling as witnesses bank officials other than senior management.

At the inquiry a senior inspector of taxes said there was no suggestion of an amnesty at the controversial meeting between Allied Irish Banks and the Revenue Commissioners in February 1991.

Mr Liam Liston said if there had been any suggestion of one he would have recorded it in his notes of the meeting.

An assistant secretary in the Revenue, Mr Sean Moriarty, who was not at the meeting, said it was to warn AIB "to get their house in order". The result was what he would have expected of such a meeting. Mr Tony MacCarthaigh, the senior tax inspector who conducted the meeting, put an arrangement in place which was "within his capacity to offer as an incentive".

He agreed, however, that a memo Mr MacCarthaigh drew up two months before the AIB meeting had similarities to what AIB was saying it was offered at that meeting.

In his memo Mr MacCarthaigh suggested a seminar with Revenue and all senior people in financial institutions with responsibility for DIRT. He would "suggest a period of grace of about six months be given to enable all institutions to rectify every improper account held without seeking arrears of DIRT".

Mr Dan Roddy, an inspector of taxes who also attended the AIB meeting, told the inquiry the political establishment over the last 25 years had "insulated" the financial institutions from any effective scrutiny of their compliance with taxation requirements.

He also challenged a statement by the chairman of the Revenue Commissioners about the instruction not to inspect declaration forms of non-resident deposit accounts.

Mr Dermot Quigley is quoted in the Comptroller and Auditor General's report as saying the instruction did not prevent inspection by the investigation branch where it came across information which suggested the existence of bogus non-resident accounts. Mr Roddy said he never understood that to be the position, and if not corrected it amounted to an attack on his integrity and that of other officers in the investigation branch.

Mr Roddy and Mr Liston said they were given about 10 minutes' notice by their colleague, Mr Tony MacCarthaigh, before the meeting with AIB in February 1991. They agreed that bringing four people into the meeting was to "beef up" the Revenue's situation and have a "rent-a-crowd".

Mr Padraig O Donghaile, principal inspector of taxes, said he probably got a few days' notice of the meeting. The purpose of the meeting with AIB tax department officials was for "rattling the cage" a little and reminding them of their compliance responsibilities.