RTE, which is being sued by the Fianna Fail TD Ms Beverly Cooper-Flynn for libel, yesterday asked the High Court to make an order directing National Irish Bank and National Irish Bank Financial Services Ltd to reveal the identity of 65 clients.
Ms Cooper-Flynn, described as a former financial services manager with NIBFS, is also suing an RTE journalist, Charlie Bird, and Mr James Howard, a retired farmer, of Wheaton Hall, Drogheda, Co Louth. The hearing is fixed for July 4th.
She alleges that, on six occasions between June and July 1998, words were used in RTE interviews which meant she had advised and induced Mr Howard to evade his obligation to pay tax by investing money in a particular way.
In preparation for the action, RTE claims to be entitled to the names of 65 NIB clients alleged to have been beneficiaries of an investment scheme introduced by Ms Cooper-Flynn. RTE's lawyers have also sought from the bank the diaries kept by the TD for the years 1989 and 1990 and for the six-month period from January to June 1994.
Mr John Trainor SC, for RTE, told Mr Justice Kelly the 65 names belonged to "key people" whose identity was known to Ms Cooper-Flynn. RTE proposed asking these people, if identified, for statements. If they refused, then RTE would consider issuing subpoenas. RTE's application was resisted by NIB and by Ms Cooper-Flynn. E's allegations.
In an affidavit, Mr Simon McCormack, solicitor for RTE, said the documentation which NIB was ordered by the court to produce for the forthcoming action had, as directed by the order, masked the identity of 65 particular bank clients.
He said Ms Cooper-Flynn was employed to sell financial products and one such product was a Clerical Medical International personal portfolio which was an insurance product offered by CMI in the Isle of Man.
Mr McCormack said that in 1998 RTE and Mr Bird came into possession of certain information which indicated that NIB had been targeting certain customers whom it knew to possess or suspected of possessing "hot" money (upon which tax ought to have been paid). It had adopted a policy of seeking to persuade such customers to invest their money in an offshore financial product developed by CMI.
It was the wish of RTE and Mr Bird to subpoena, for the purpose of giving evidence at the trial, all the 65 clients identified by NIB in its discovery documentation as having been introduced to, and/or having purchased, the CMI Personal Portfolio products through Ms Cooper-Flynn while an NIB employee.
Mr McCormack said it appeared that almost all the 65 clients had refused to nominate their home address or to give a contact address. Instead, they gave either the NIB head office or a branch such as NIB Terenure, Dundalk, Clones, Bailieborough, Shercock, Monaghan, O'Connell Street (Dublin), Howth Road, Blanchardstown or Kingscourt.
All 65 files seemed to have in common amounts exceeding £50,000, but at least 30 clients had invested sums in excess of £100,000. At least one appeared to have invested more than £1 million.
In another affidavit, Ms Hilary Prentice, solicitor for NIB, said RTE and Mr Bird were in effect requesting the bank to provide them with names of witnesses. Such an application could not be used for the purpose of obtaining information to ground a plea of justification in a libel action. E and Mr Bird had made such a plea.
Ms Prentice said the bank had a duty of confidentiality to its clients and the court should recognise that duty. She said the bank had fully complied with the order that all diaries created by Ms Cooper-Flynn, in the bank's power, possession or procurement, be discovered.
Mr Justice Kelly, who will continue to hear the application today, was told that about 10,000 pages had now been analysed by RTE legal advisers.
