The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, has been called to appear before the DIRT hearings of the Dail Committee of Public Accounts, which start next Tuesday.
Mr McCreevy is one of 89 witnesses who have been directed to date to appear before the committee, which is holding formal hearings into the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General's investigation into the administration of the Deposit Interest Retention Tax between 1986 and 1998.
While the chairman of the committee, Mr Jim Mitchell, said yesterday he was not in a position to confirm if Mr McCreevy or other former ministers for finance had been called to give evidence, The Irish Times established last night that Mr McCreevy will appear.
Last night other former ministers from the period, Mr John Bruton, Mr Alan Dukes, Mr Albert Reynolds and Mr Ruairi Quinn said they had not been called to date. Mr Ray MacSharry could not be contacted to establish if he will appear but it is believed he is not on the list.
Mr Mitchell confirmed yesterday that the 89 witnesses called to date include the Governor of the Central Bank, the chairman of the Revenue Commissioners and the secretary-general of the Department of Finance. The chief executives of the State's largest financial institutions are also likely to attend.
Mr Mitchell said the PAC subcommittee conducting the inquiry would meet today and tomorrow to finalise the full line-up at the hearings, and it might be decided to add to the list of 89. The full list would be made public on Friday. The subcommittee is made up of Mr Mitchell, Mr Pat Rabbitte, Mr Sean Doherty, Mr Bernard Durkan, Mr Denis Foley and Mr Sean Ardagh.
According to Mr Mitchell, the subcommittee has spent many hours trying to reduce the list of possible witnesses.
"We only want the key witnesses and we want to conduct this in as fair a way as possible for everyone concerned," he said.
He said that as this was the first time a Dail committee had used extensive new powers allowing it to summon persons and documents the committee was ploughing new ground. "We had to invent procedures and had to have regard to the superior court rulings and natural justice," he said.
He was confident procedures devised by the subcommittee for the hearings, expected to last until October, were such that there would be no legal challenges which might delay matters as had happened with the tribunals. The hearings are scheduled to sit for 23 days between next week and October 1st.
Mr Mitchell reiterated his wish that legal costs be kept as low as possible. Asked if the State would be footing the bill for legal representation, he said this was a sensitive issue.
"We, of course, want to respect people's legal rights but we want the role of lawyers to be kept to a minimum. We will be realistic but not indulgent."
All witnesses to be called before the inquiry will be subpoenaed or directed to give evidence under oath. Since the witnesses are directed under law to appear they will be covered by Dail privilege. This also means that giving false evidence will constitute perjury.
The hearings will be broadcast live by TG4 and the provisional hours agreed for the hearings are from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Mondays and from 10.30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2.30 p.m. and 6 p.m. from Tuesdays to Fridays.
Extensive preparations have been made for the hearing including renovations to the room in which the hearings take place and arrangements to place evidence on an Oireachtas website.