ACCBank acknowledges its failures

ACCBank said it "fully and unreservedly" accepted there were serious failures in part of its operation of the DIRT regime. In its closing submission, the bank accepted that it failed to comply with statutory duties and would fully co-operate with the Revenue in discharging every item of liability "that properly falls on it as a result of its failures".

Mr Paul Gallagher SC, for the bank, pointed out, however, that whatever criticism was put before the committee was based on "documents produced by the ACC as a result of their investigations". Those documents formed the basis of the "most severe criticism" of ACC - its own contemporaneous notes - and were drawn up by people "trying to do their job".

It was accepted, Mr Gallagher said, that the faults identified "were not remedied as they should have been, but I don't think sight should be lost of the fact that there were very determined people in the ACC who were identifying these faults".

They were recording them not just in the internal audits but in memos and in statements made to various people. The reclassification of accounts from non-resident to resident which gave rise to understandable criticism "was prompted by management of the ACC".

In the shortest oral submission to the committee, the Ulster Bank Group said it had paid £128 million in DIRT in the 12 years within the inquiry's remit.

Mr John Gordon SC, for the group, said the bank had an "error factor" of less than 1 per cent in the amount of tax paid, and believed that its arrears liability would be substantially less than the worst-case scenario of £900,000 in papers before the committee.