National Australia Bank is waiting on the release of a report that could either damage the brand name of its National Irish Bank subsidiary, or clear the decks for its sale, as several analysts and commentators have recently been demanding.The report, from two inspectors appointed by the Irish High Court, is expected to be released later this month and is the culmination of a six-year investigation into the overcharging of fees and interest -- already admitted by the bank -- the non-payment of deposit interest retention tax (known as DIRT) and possible tax evasion arising from the promotion of offshore investment products.The affair has so far cost NIB around€40 million (A$69 million) in taxes, penalties, refunds and compensation to customers, and last month led to the expulsion of a member of parliament from Ireland's ruling Fianna Fail party, who was found by the High Court to have promoted the offshore investment products while a NIB employee.The High Court investigation is only one of several into the matter, including an internal NIB enquiry, another by the Irish Central Bank and one by the tax department, while the police and the director of public prosecutions are considering criminal prosecutions against those involved.The scandal first came to light in 1998when an investigative story by public broadcaster Radio Telef챠ȩreann alleged that MP Beverly Flynn, who was a NIB financial adviser before entering politics, had advised customers to invest their money offshore to avoid taxes.Flynn lost a libel action against RTE in 2001, when a High Court jury ruled that the accusations in the program were essentially accurate and had not damaged her reputation. Last month, the Supreme Court unanimously dismissed Flynn's appeal and awarded costs against her of over €2 million (A$3.4 million). "This is a great day for RTE, for investigative journalism, and for public service broadcasting," said the journalist responsible for the story.Flynn was considered by many to be a potential cabinet minister, but Fianna Fail immediately expelled her after party leader and Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said it was unacceptable for an MP to encourage others to evade taxes.The High Court inspectors' report is expected to be highly critical of practices at NIB.An earlier parliamentary enquiry into the non-payment of DIRT by several Irish banks found, in 1999, that NIB had failed to take effective action four years after internal audits discovered the problem and it had been less than open in its dealings with the tax department.In something of a pre-cursor to reports on the forex option scandal in Melbourne earlier this year, the enquiry found that "the audit committee of the NIB board of directors lacked effectiveness, influence and direction." The inspectors have examined the role of 23 former NIB senior managers, including Flynn, who were allegedly involved in promotion of offshore investment products from Clerical Medical Insurance to evade tax.Some 470 NIB customers bought the offshore investments and many have pursued professional negligence claims against the bank in relation to the advice they received. In settlements with some