Retired NIB bank manager denies any wrongdoing

A RETIRED National Irish Bank regional manager has told the High Court it never crossed his mind to consider, when bogus non-resident accounts were identified as existing within National Irish Bank branches in the 1990s, that DIRT should have been deducted from the accounts and paid to the Revenue Commissioners.

Kevin Curran, who retired from NIB in 1997, said he had never considered retrospective liability in such circumstances. Nor, he believed, had others in NIB management or in audit considered so.

He agreed various audit reports in the 1990s had warned of serious consequences in terms of Revenue penalties where DIRT was not paid when it should have been, however, he said the question of taxation was dealt with by tax managers, not by him. He had no authority to raise the matter of retrospective payments.