What AIB said:
AIB's former head of taxation, Mr Jimmy O'Mahony, who was involved in brokering the alleged deal with the Revenue Commissioners, told the committee the bank had secured an amnesty in relation to DIRT in 1991.
Following a series of meetings with the Revenue, AIB believed it had a "forward-looking" arrangement which involved the write-off of DIRT liabilities from 1986 to 1991. "An amnesty, as I put it in my notes, was in inverted commas. It was an agreement or a settlement," Mr O'Mahony said.
He claimed the amnesty was granted within the Revenue's "powers of care and management", which allowed it to make such a settlement. He said that tax inspector Mr Tony Mac Carthaigh told him "not once, but on several occasions" that he was acting with the approval of the board of the Revenue. "Why were we to doubt him?" said Mr O'Mahony.
Revenue's response:
Mr Mac Carthaigh, the tax inspector AIB claimed had negotiated the DIRT amnesty, disputed the bank's version of what was agreed at those meetings in 1991. "Why would I give a concession to AIB - who had been a thorn in my side for a time - when, at the same time, I was extracting the full shilling from Bank of Ireland, who were co-operating with me?" he said.
Mr Mac Carthaigh told the committee he believed AIB had a "game plan" from the outset. "I don't believe AIB ever had an intention to pay tax, and they made a series of phone calls hoping to grasp a few words here and there, cobble together and ultimately to get their end. Even by their own definition, they failed to make a payment ultimately," he said.
What the Public Accounts
Committee found:
"There was no deal, agreement or amnesty involving the write-off of tax. The fact that AIB was allowed to persuade themselves that they may have an understanding to this effect is due in part to the negligence of the Revenue Commissioners."