Diverse circumstances combined to lead to the confrontation between Beverley Cooper-Flynn and Charlie Bird in the High Court over the past seven weeks.
It all began when the Ansbacher scandal broke during the McCracken tribunal, revealing that many of the State's leading businessmen, along with the former Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, had off-shore accounts for the purpose of tax evasion. There was public outrage and much speculation about the identities of the investors.
This was the context in which Charlie Bird got a tip-off that it was not just the big boys who were playing that game. He was told that National Irish Bank operated a scheme where funds were invested offshore for farmers and business people who wanted to hide their money from the tax man.
It was the first big story RTE had got for years and it came at a very propitious time. Ed Mulhall had just been made director of news and the in-house legal department had been revamped, with a new head, solicitor Eamonn Kennedy.
Ed Mulhall had a strong commitment to RTE seeking out its own stories and Eamonn Kennedy's attitude to legal problems was to find ways to solve them and get the story on air.
The story therefore dropped into RTE's lap at a time when two people with a strong commitment to investigative journalism were in key positions. From the beginning, both were involved in the story in a handson way. Up the line, there was also support from the director-general, Bob Collins, and a general feeling that the RTE Authority, under the chairmanship of Farrell Corcoran, was supportive of investigative journalism.
Ed Mulhall's first act was to put George Lee, the station's economics correspondent, on the story with Charlie Bird. At first sight it was a most unlikely pairing - quiet, bespectacled Lee, festooned with academic qualifications, would admit to seeing himself more as an economist than an aggressive reporter, while loud, excitable Bird, who left school without completing his Leaving Certificate, is more at home in the thick of an election than in front of a pile of documents. But it proved an inspired decision.
Lee's expertise was vital in pinning down the story, checking it out with financial sources and establishing the paper trail, while Bird's accessibility meant that avenues to aggrieved members of the public were opened up. The two knew they had a big story: a major financial institution was engaged in assisting tax evasion. Along with Ed Mulhall and Eamonn Kennedy, they worked on ways to get it on air.
The bank obtained an injunction to stop them examining its affairs. RTE fought it in the Supreme Court and won. This was hugely significant. The courts had ruled that the right of the media to investigate wrongdoing was more important than the right to financial confidentiality.
The impact of the story on the morale of news staff was enormous. Applause and cheers broke out in the newsroom when the first NIB story went out on air. For the first time, RTE was breaking major stories.
The first story provoked a deluge of calls about NIB and other banks. The story came out about NIB branches overcharging customers on their accounts. The DIRT inquiry was announced. It seemed that the Bird-Lee team had a new revelation every week, including interviews with bank managers, their identities disguised, admitting to dubious practices. So when they got a call from a farmer saying that Beverley Cooper-Flynn had sold him a policy which, she said, meant he could avoid paying tax, it fitted into the overall context of the story.
They knew it was a dangerous story and sought a response from Ms Cooper-Flynn. She declined to comment. After more discussions with the in-house lawyers, more steps to check it out, the story was broadcast.
They expected that there would be the threat of legal action. So when the writ came in there was concern, but it did not take the main actors by surprise. There was no hesitation about the response - this was a case which had to be fought.
The case came at a time when RTE was seeking a major increase in the licence fee. While concern over whether an increase will be granted by the Government is not directly related to it, one incident during the trial illustrated the nervousness felt by all RTE news staff when dealing with sensitive political stories. Michael Ronayne, a Mayo man, former RTE journalist and currently an adviser to the Minister responsible for the licence fee, Ms de Valera, arrived in court on the last day of evidence, prepared to testify against his former employers. This was disallowed by the judge, but his presence sent apprehensive shivers down the spines of his former colleagues.