Director in 'bid to reopen NIB inquiry'
This is in realtion to a bid to "reopen" the investigation and "turn it into some sort of Phase Two inquisition", it was claimed before the High Court yesterday.
Michael Collins SC, for former NIB executive director Barry Seymour and former NIB head of finance Patrick Byrne, was making submissions opposing an application by the Director to procure, under Section 12 of the Companies Act, certain documents from the inspectors who investigated the affairs of NIB.
Mr Collins said it had been acknowledged in the inspectors' final report of July 2004 that Mr Seymour was only with the bank for some 22 months and had taken corrective action to address problems which predated his arrival. However, he said, it appeared the Director was seeking documents to hold Mr Seymour responsible for not leaving "a perfect" bank behind him and for not turning "the Titanic around 360 degrees."
He said Mr Byrne had also said he was not part of senior management within NIB and now it appeared the Director wished to run some kind of "mini-plenary inquiry" into that.
The Section 12 application was also opposed by Paul Anthony McDermott, for the inspectors. He said the inspectors had been asked to produce a report and had done so and they should not now be required to revisit their findings.
Counsel for NIB said it too opposed the application. He said the application could lead to more costs for the bank, which had already paid some e61.5 million in costs of the inspectors' inquiry. The bank was prepared to discover any documents sought through normal discovery channels.
Discovery under Section 12 was also opposed by lawyers for a number of the eight directors or other bank officials against whom the Director has taken proceedings aimed at having them declared unfit to be involved in the management of any company.
One of the eight, Kevin Curran, is not opposing the Director's application, while it was indicated to Mr Justice Peter Kelly yesterday that another two - Tom McMenamin and Dermott Boner - were reserving their position.
The judge was told the eight respondents have disputed the adverse findings of the inspectors in relation to themselves while some of the eight were disputing, to varying degrees, the findings of fact made by the inspectors.
Among the documents being sought by the Director are transcripts of interviews between the respondents and any documents indicating that the operational environment of the Bank was "target driven" and that managers felt under pressure to achieve "unreasonable" targets.
The Director wants the documents to answer defences advanced by the respondents in the disqualification proceedings against them.
Those proceedings were initiated after publication in July 2004 of the inspectors' report.
The inspectors concluded both NIB and NIB Financial Services Ltd were involved in a number of improper practices which enabled customers to evade tax and that responsibility rested with the senior management of the bank.
The eight respondents are Jim Lacey, Pine Haven, Grove House Gardens, Blackrock, Co Dublin; Barry Seymour, Beaumond, Amersham, Bucks, England; Dermott Boner, Chesterfield Avenue, Castleknock, Dublin; Michael Keane, Corr Castle, Howth, Co Dublin; Frank Brennan, Ardglass, Dundrum, Dublin; Tom McMenamin, College Grove, Castleknock, Dublin; Patrick Byrne, St Helen's Road, Booterstown, Co Dublin, and Kevin Curran, Avondale Court, Blackrock, Co Dublin.
A similar disqualification application was brought by the Director against another former NIB executive, Nigel D'Arcy of Castledillon, Straffan, Co Kildare.
However, Mr D'Arcy did not oppose the application and an order was made in October disqualifying him from involvement in the management of any company for ten years.
