Former chief executive of National Irish Bank Jim Lacey has told the High Court that during his time as the head of the bank, the Revenue never raised any issues regarding DIRT tax.
Mr Lacey was chief executive of NIB from 1988 until 1994. The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement has taken proceedings in the High Court seeking the disqualification of Mr Lacey as a company director.
The court has been told that a High Court inspectors' report into the bank published in 2004 found 'a catastrophic failure of governance within the bank'.
Giving evidence in the witness box today, Jim Lacey said that during all his time as chief executive, Revenue never came to look at the bank's accounts. He said that the bank operated to the 'highest standards' while he was chief executive, and its banking practices were the same as other banks.
He said that he had worked 14- or 15-hour days, six days a week, overseeing a banking network which comprised 60 branches, and 800 employees. Mr Lacey told the court that non-compliance with any aspect of the Finance Act of 1986 would not have been acceptable to him.
He said the bank had systems to ensure compliance with the laws of the land, but he said that from the subsequent investigations 'we now know that some managers falsified information'.
Mr Lacey said that the issue of the retrospective collection of DIRT tax from account holders who should have been paying it previously was not clarified until the Public Accounts Committee hearings of 1999.
Mr Lacey will continue giving his evidence during the afternoon. He argues that during his time at the bank, proper procedures were followed in the bank in relation to the application of DIRT tax and the registering of the residential status of account holders.
The proceedings taken against him in the High Court arise from the High Court Inspectors' Report which found evidence of tax evasion and bogus non-resident accounts at NIB as well as the improper charging of customers' accounts. The activities were first uncovered by RTE.
