The committee would be seeking details of the disciplinary steps taken by the financial institutions involved in the DIRT inquiry in relation to irregularities concerning non-resident or incorrectly named accounts, the chairman, Mr Jim Mitchell, warned.
Earlier the inquiry had returned to the subject of the Blanchardstown branch of National Irish Bank where, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General's report, irregularities had been found, in January 1996, despite a signed declaration "confirming that fictitious or incorrectly named accounts did not exist in the branch and that all non-resident accounts were genuine".
When Mr Mitchell asked if the manager concerned had been disciplined, NIB's head of staff, Mr Don Price, said he had been promoted. It was not clear whether the promotion had occurred before or after the relevant audit. Further clarification on this point would be necessary, the committee agreed.
The chairman summed up: There appeared to be a good deal of evidence of non-adherence on the ground, despite directives "from the top" that the law must be observed. One thing that would indicate management's seriousness about the issue, he said, would be if the appropriate disciplinary action were taken. "In this case not only was there no disciplinary action taken, but the man was promoted," he added.
The bank's former chief executive, Mr Jim Lacey, said he could shed no further light on the matter.
"Last week we heard from Mr Spain that it was results that mattered," said the chairman. "What is your comment on that?"
Mr Lacey replied: "In any organisation, obviously, you have to achieve some results. Otherwise you don't survive. But those results have to be achieved in the context of carrying out the proper procedures. During my time at NIB we did not turn a blind eye at any time to people who blatantly ignored practices and particularly the issue of bogus non-resident accounts."
In relation to a disciplinary matter at the Castlebar branch of the bank, said Mr Lacey, a "fairly young manager" had moved to another branch "before we discovered what went on and he would have moved on promotion".
The individual concerned had been taken "out of the branch network" and demoted to assistant manager: "We put him into head office where he would have had no access to customer records or dealing with customers." This, he said, was deemed to a "fairly tough penalty". It would have been very hard for the man to recover, he added, in a situation where he had been "knocked back to assistant manager level" in a head office area. "That was what we thought in the circumstances was as much as we could have justified."
A former KPMG partner was described by the chairman, Mr Mitchell, as the "only practitioner" who had questioned the interpretation of the law on DIRT compliance, after describing it as "a grey issue". The former partner, Mr Gerry McEvoy, said tax compliance was an in-house function of NIB and tax advice was provided by KPMG.
"I took the strong view that if the form was missing the bank had a clear liability and that, basically, an amount of tax should be offered up to the Revenue Commissioners," he said. "In relation to other deficiencies, I felt that that was a matter for discussion with the Revenue Commissioners."
Did he accept on the basis of the evidence so far, including confirmation from the former NIB chairman, Mr Alex Spain, that the law was crystal-clear? "I'm not saying the issue is black-and-white. I think there is a grey issue and particularly in relation to some of the discussions which went on between the Banking Federation and the Revenue, which are noted in the earlier part of the Comptroller and Auditor General's report."