Establish the facts, embarrass where necessary, draw conclusions and make recommendations: these are the main priorities of the Public Accounts Committee that will conduct the DIRT inquiry starting in Dublin today.
"We can't yet fine, sack or prosecute anyone, but we can recommend it," said the inquiry and PAC chairman, Mr Jim Mitchell, who will lead an intensive five-week public hearing involving the testimony of up to 117 witnesses.
The committee's long-running interest centres on a controversy that first came to public attention 18 months ago with reports about widespread use of non-resident bogus accounts, opened to avoid paying tax on deposit interest.
The hearing will be the first to use extensive new powers, including compelling the attendance of witnesses and the disclosure of documents. It will also consider and establish the facts in clashes of evidence, one of the key ones being the fundamental contradiction between Allied Irish Banks and the Revenue Commissioners about whether there was agreement to "forgive" the bank its liabilities for DIRT before 1991.
Perhaps the committee's biggest challenge, however, will be to conclude its public hearings within five weeks.
"We can't hang around," Mr Mitchell said yesterday. The Fine Gael TD for Dublin Central is determined to maintain a fast pace and deal with all the witnesses listed for each day with as little legal intervention as possible.
Mr Mitchell said they wanted to ensure justice would be done. Witnesses were entitled to legal representation but "we are trying to keep the intervention of lawyers to the minimum".
Last week, the chairman issued an 11-page document outlining how the proceedings would be handled, which, he believed, "made it clear that normally the witnesses won't be questioned by the lawyers". Time would be allocated after all the witnesses have been questioned, at the end of the hearing, for cross-examination by lawyers where necessary.
The document stated that "interventions by lawyers will not be a normal feature of the hearings", but lawyers who have previously identified themselves as representing a witness could "if at any time they feel compelled to do so, raise a point with the chair".
"Unfortunately," the PAC chairman said, "legal people look at this inquiry the way they look at courts and tribunals. But this is not like the courts or tribunals and parliamentary requirements and exigencies have to be taken into account." The parliament would be back and TDs had other work to do when it resumed.
He stressed, however, that so far the committee had had "optimum co-operation" from all interested parties. "We just wanted to make it clear that there are certain requirements, procedures and privileges in a parliamentary inquiry which will have to be adhered to."
The committee for the first time will have the power to call Government Ministers, external auditors and banking and building society federations. "What we want to do is bring the facts into the public domain and to draw the facts out where there are clashes of evidence between different witnesses."
The Government Secretary, Mr Frank Murray, is expected to be the first witness called today, along with the current Secretary General of the Department of Finance, Mr Paddy Mullarkey, and former Finance Department secretaries.
A number of former ministers for finance will also be among the witnesses but they will not give evidence until late September. They include the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, the Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, the Labour leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, Mr Albert Reynolds and Mr Ray MacSharry.
Mr Mitchell said it would be a comprehensive inquiry.
The committee had received some unsolicited correspondence. Some was "vexatious", some outside the terms of reference and some was pertinent. However, when the committee went to follow up one or two letters, people either got "wobbly" about pursuing the matter or "are not sure of their ground".
It also received some anonymous correspondence. Mr Mitchell stressed that the committee got these kinds of correspondence all the time.
