The Dail committee investigating the AIB/DIRT affair faces a delay of at least a week before hearing two key witnesses.
The Committee of Public Accounts meets in private today to discuss the next steps in its investigation into the claim that AIB was granted an "amnesty"' in 1991 in relation to DIRT (Deposit Interest Retention Tax) arrears going back to 1986. The chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, Mr Dermot Quigley, is to be recalled to give evidence when the committee sits again tomorrow.
But the two former AIB executives who could provide crucial evidence, Mr Jimmy O'Mahony and Mr Anthony Spollen, are not likely to appear until next week.
Mr O'Mahony, the former group taxation manager who estimated that 60 per cent of the bank's 87,600 non-resident deposit accounts were bogus, has indicated that he is prepared to meet the committee but cannot attend this week.
Mr Spollen, the former group internal auditor who said at the time the DIRT liability involved could total £100 million, has sought "certain clarifications" about his invitation to attend, the committee chairman, Mr Jim Mitchell, said last night.
He said these had been provided and the committee was now awaiting Mr Spollen's response.
AIB representatives who met the committee last week insisted that the estimates of Mr Spollen and Mr O'Mahony were "seriously unreliable" and "off the wall". They also claimed Revenue, as part of an industry-wide initiative to regularise the bogus non-resident accounts situation, had agreed not to pursue the outstanding DIRT liabilities from 1986, when the tax was introduced on deposit accounts held by Irish residents.
This claim was denied by Mr Quigley when he met the committee last Tuesday. Yesterday the two sides were examining transcripts of each other's evidence and are both expected to furnish written reports to the committee today.
Today's meeting will hear a report from Mr Mitchell on yesterday's "case conference" with the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr John Purcell, committee staff and legal advisers.
Mr Mitchell said last night the conference had brought "very great clarity" to a range of constitutional, legislative, procedural, administrative and resource issues facing the committee.
The committee now has two main options open to it, both of which would require seeking new legislation from the Oireachtas. It can either ask for new laws to give the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) powers equivalent to those of a High Court-appointed inspector, or seek new powers for itself to compel the attendance of witnesses and production of documents.
A number of committee members have expressed the view that the CAG option might be the most effective means of getting at the truth. Mr Mitchell said "a combination of both" options might be chosen.
The Labour Party has tabled a ail motion seeking to expand the terms of reference of the committee, enabling it to carry out a full investigation of the affair.
The motion, which will be debated during private members time tonight, follows the party's submission to the Government last week of amending legislation to give the CPA the powers it needs to carry out such an inquiry under the Comptroller and Auditor General.
However, the Government last night accused Labour of pre-empting the CPA itself on the issue, and said it would await the committee's formal request for further powers before taking any action.
Labour's motion instructs the CPA to investigate the "state of knowledge of directors and officers of AIB in relation to the extent of its compliance with its statutory obligations and the nature and extent of the disclosure made by it to the Revenue Commissioners".
In another development, Labour's spokesman on enterprise, trade and employment, Mr Tommy Broughan, said he had written to Supt Frank Glackin of the National Bureau of Fraud Investigation asking him to urgently launch an investigation into "the serious allegations of massive tax evasion in the banking industry".
Mr Broughan said if the allegations were found to be accurate, then prosecutions must follow.
