This week Scannal delves into the story of National Irish Bank. Normally when you think of bank robbery, it’s the bank that’s being robbed, but the scandal of the National Irish bank story was that it was the bank that was caught stealing from its own customers. When the National Irish Bank story broke in January 1998 it changed the course of Irish banking forever. It was a scandal that saw the fourth largest bank in Ireland brought to its knees thanks to a courageous whistleblower. A scandal where two prominent journalists put their reputations on the line for what they believed to be the truth. A scandal that saw precedents set by the highest court in the land and a scandal that saw a well known TD ousted and shamed for her part in the proceedings. The story began with a phone call to RTÉ’s Chief News correspondent Charlie Bird. Charlie Bird worked on the story with RTÉ economics expert, George Lee. The first report was broadcast on the January 23rd, 1998. This first report dealt with tax evasion, specifically, the fact that the bank was helping its customers evade tax by availing of an offshore investment scheme on the Isle of Man. After the first broadcast, National Irish Bank were concerned about other confidential information being revealed and went to the High Court to stop RTÉ reporting any further reports using internal bank documents. The case went to the Supreme Court and in a landmark ruling, the court found in favour of RTÉ and on the March 25th, 1998 the second story about the bank was broadcast by RTÉ’s Six One News. An emergency cabinet meeting was called and the public wanted answers fast. The then Tánaiste, Mary Harney, ordered an inquiry and for Charlie Bird and George Lee, it seemed like a good end to their story. There was however, to be another twist in the tale. Beverley Flynn TD had worked in National Irish Bank and during the course of their investigations Charlie Bird and George Lee were told that she had encourage