The chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, Mr Dermot Quigley, and his immediate predecessor, Mr Cathal Mac Domhnaill, have vehemently denied they had any role in negotiations with AIB in determining the bank's liability for DIRT. Mr Quigley confirmed that he had met the bank's head of group taxation, Dr Donal de Buitleir, on October 12th, 1998, the day before the start of the Public Accounts Committee hearings, "when he called to see me in my office".
In response to questioning from the committee chairman, Mr Jim Mitchell, Mr Mac Domhnaill said: "I can agree with the evidence given here today that I didn't discuss any aspect of this settlement with anybody in AIB at any time."
Mr Quigley said he fully accepted "the clarifications made this morning by the bank representatives and by the representative of PricewaterhouseCooper". The implication had been given that he had made a "sudden phone call some time after April", before the start of the PAC hearings in October last year, to demand "outstanding information within a two-week period" from AIB. He had made no such phone call, he said.
After the publication of a Sunday Independent report in April on the bank's alleged liability for DIRT, the Revenue's investigation branch wrote to the AIB chief executive, "referring to the media reports and asking for a report of any non-compliance by the bank".
A series of meetings were held that month between the bank and the investigation branch: "No member of the board was involved in those meetings."
On May 8th, the Revenue wrote to AIB to say it would have expected that all relevant facts would have been disclosed "at the appropriate time", adding that non-compliance issues now had to be addressed. On May 21st, AIB replied "expressing fundamental disagreement" with the Revenue's assertions.
That position, in turn, was refuted by the Revenue on June 4th: "Subsequently, further work was done in Revenue and contact was made with Mr Spollen [AIB's former group internal auditor] as part of that work." A substantive meeting was arranged for October 2nd, which took place.
Mr Quigley said that he had no discussion with anybody in AIB about the DIRT matter between April and mid-October. However, he recalled that Dr de Buitleir, had called to his office" on October 12th: "He asked me about the likely events at the Public Accounts Committee the following day - and as he said, correctly, in his own evidence - he made me aware of the facts as far as the bank were concerned, including the records."
Mr Quigley said he had indicated to the AIB executive that he had "checked in Revenue". He had made a "courtesy call" to Dr de Buitleir two days later "simply to tell him about what had transpired".
Mr Mitchell asked: "Did you consider that it was a little bit sensitive to be meeting people from AIB right when the Public Accounts Committee was seized of this issue?"
The Revenue chairman replied that he was "fully seized" of the fact that the issues were sensitive.