November 1997: Public Accounts Committee (PAC) examines Revenue Commissioners chairman Cathal Mac Domhnaill (now retired) on lack of action on tax evasion and failure to prosecute.
April 1998: Report in the Sun- day Independent that some 53,000 bogus non-resident accounts containing over £600 million were held in Allied Irish Bank in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Dail Public Accounts Committee recalls Mr Mac Domhnaill.
May/June 1998: Emerges that AIB paid £14 million to the Revenue to "settle" its DIRT liabilities following a review of non-resident accounts in 1991.
July 1998: New Revenue chairman Mr Dermot Quigley maintains Revenue's powers in relation to non-resident accounts are limited. Revenue re-opens investigations into AIB and extents the inquiry to other financial institutions.
October 1998: Emerges that when AIB paid the £14 million DIRT settlement to the Revenue its internal auditor, Mr Tony Spollen, had estimated the bank's DIRT liability at closer to £100 million.
October 1998: AIB chairman Mr Tom Mulcahy appears before the PAC and describes Mr Spollen's £100 million DIRT estimate as "off the wall". Revenue accuses AIB of withholding information crucial to calculating its tax liability. Fundamental disagreement between Revenue and AIB on whether AIB received an amnesty deal in 1991.
December 1998: Legislation passed to give the PAC power to compel witnesses to attend and to hold public hearings. Special sub-committee set up.
PAC appoints the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) Mr John Purcell to carry out an investigation.
July 1999: C&AG finds evidence of widespread tax evasion through bogus bank accounts at most financial institutions in the late 1980s early 1990s. Confirmed a widespread problem at AIB, evidence of bogus accounts at National Irish Bank and the State-owned ACCBank and evidence of bogus accounts in earlier years at Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank.
August 1999: PAC special committee hearings resume.
August to October: PAC interviews bank executives, current and former ministers for finance, former and current Revenue officials and former and current senior officials of the Department of Finance and the Central Bank. In all 142 witnesses and 150,000 documents were examined.
December 1999: PAC subcommittee reports.