A change of approach at the hearings of the subcommittee of the Dail Committee of Public Accounts' inquiry into DIRT evasion must have been refreshing to the six TDs, who have been force-fed a diet of "it wasn't us, guv" in recent weeks.

Sir George Quigley, the long-time chairman of Ulster Bank told the inquiry, the tax was an exercise in self-assessment and his bank felt that mistakes in sanctioning non-resident accounts were a matter for the bank itself. He said the bank never understood that the Revenue would not be pursuing DIRT on bogus non-resident accounts. It was assessing its tax bill as a result of such accounts and would be paying that sum to the tax authorities.

No-one claims Ulster Bank is whiter than white, but Sir George's approach will make him few friends among the banking fraternity which is variously disputing the scale of the problem and claiming they had guarantees from the Revenue that arrears of DIRT would not be pursued.