National Irish Bank (NIB) yesterday applied for a High Court order directing the hand-over of transcripts of interviews carried out with its employees and former employees by the inspectors appointed to investigate the bank's affairs.
Another order aimed at avoiding "duplication" in separate investigations by the inspectors and by the Comptroller and Auditor General into the bank's compliance with Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT) is also being sought in proceedings by NIB and National Irish Bank Financial Services Limited (NIBFSL) before Mr Justice Peter Kelly.
Mr Eoghan Fitzsimons SC, for the Tanaiste and Minister for Employment and Enterprise, Ms Mary Harney, and Mr Denis McDonald, for the court-appointed inspectors Mr Tom Grace and Mr John Blayney, who are investigating the affairs of NIB and NIBFSL, are opposing NIB's application.
In the course of the proceedings, the inspectors in an affidavit reiterated that they regretted they "could not agree" with an assertion by the bank that it had co-operated with the inspectors "to the utmost extent possible".
The court heard that the inspectors have interviewed some 75 persons who invested in specified insurance products, including with Clerical Medical Insurance personal portfolio products, and have begun interviewing NIB employees and former employees.
Mr Richard Nesbitt SC, for the bank (instructed by Matheson Ormsby Prentice, solicitors) said that, as the bank was already being investigated along with other financial institutions in regard to DIRT compliance, there was no need for a similar investigation by the inspectors.
In exchanges with the judge, Mr Nesbitt accepted that a report from court-appointed inspectors has a different status than a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General. But he argued that a report from the comptroller would be "of use" and would not be just left.
In an affidavit, Ms Patricia O'Sullivan Lacy, company secretary of NIB and NIBFSL, said the Bank was now in the "unique and inequitable position" of being investigated by three authorities in relation to DIRT compliance.
On the issue of seeking transcripts of interviews with NIB employees, she said an interim report of the inspectors was presented to the High Court on December 17th, 1998, which stated that the inspectors had interviewed 75 people who invested in specified insurance products, including persons who invested in CMI personal portfolio products with CMI Insurance Company Limited, registered in the Isle of Man.
In an affidavit, the inspectors said they had inquired into the effecting of insurance policies through NIBFSL with CMI Company Limited and others and, in that regard, had sought information from NIB on the operation of non-resident accounts and compliance with regulations concerning DIRT.
They said that NIB was not entitled to transcripts of interviews conducted by the inspectors and believed that to do so would deprive the procedures of much of their effectiveness.
In a responding affidavit, Ms O'Sullivan Lacy said it was an open fact that the bank has sought information from its employees as to what they have been asked by the inspectors.
The reason for that was, since the inspectors had precluded the bank and NIBFSL from representation at interviews, the only other option available is to ask the employees what has transpired, she said.
The hearing continues today.
