Banking inquiry risks damage over investigation into whistleblowing

This will be week 26 of the Oireachtas banking inquiry but the recent allegations made by a whistleblower raise questions as to whether it will now run its full course.

The claims were made back in April by a member of the investigations team, with committee chairman Ciarán Lynch brought into the loop early on, along with Pearse Doherty of Sinn Féin, Senator Susan O'Keeffe and Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party.

But not the other seven members of the committee, whom, it seems, found out about the claims only on Tuesday last week following contact from the person who has made the “protected disclosure”.

That’s when they made into the public domain.

Hot and heavy sessions

Some hot and heavy private sessions following throughout Wednesday, with Fianna Fáil Senator Marc MacSharry taking a strong line on the issue and calling for an independent investigation to be held.

It seems that MacSharry wanted his dissent noted on a press release issued last week on the matter but this didn’t happen.

It’s not clear why the seven inquiry committee members were left in the dark but it raises questions about transparency and the integrity of the committee process. It might not be possible to publicise the allegations but there was nothing to prevent the committee from declaring in April that serious claims had been made by a member of the investigations team about the manner in which its work was being conducted.

It has since emerged that the whistleblower had their pay stopped last week and that a second member of the team left after becoming equally frustrated about the manner in which the investigation was being run.

Allegation of preferential treatment

The allegation is that preferential treatment was given by the investigation team to the Central Bank, the Department of Finance and certain witnesses in preparation for its hearings.

It is claimed that a number of undocumented meetings took place with the Central Bank and that certain information was allowed to be redacted. And more besides.

The Central Bank has claimed clean hands in relation to the allegations.

The Houses of the Oireachtas Service, which employed the whistleblower on behalf of the banking inquiry, has appointed Senan Allen, a senior counsel and accredited mediator, to investigate the disclosures that have been made.

The terms of reference have yet to be revealed but it is thought that it will seek to have the investigation completed by the end of August.

This would marry with the fact that the committee is taking next month off and will resume its public hearings in September.

Allen has been hired by the Houses of the Oireachtas Service and will provide his report to that body, which is also the whistleblower’s employer. It’s not quite the independent investigation MacSharry wanted and you have to wonder why this whole process hasn’t been put at arm’s length to the Houses of the Oireachtas Service. In the interests of transparency.

The banking inquiry has been in train since the middle of last year. It might have failed to capture the public’s imagination but much good work has been done.

And while there’s no sign of a smoking gun, some of its hearings have been fascinating in providing the granular detail of the crash and sketching out the individual roles of the various players who were on the stage at the time.

The banking and property crash was one of the most traumatic events in the 93-year history of our independent State and it is only right that this inquiry was held, albeit too long after the event and with too many shackles.

The allegations by the whistleblower are very serious and threaten to overshadow its work to date and possibly even scupper it altogether.

Human resources matter

The inquiry has sought to distance itself from the process somewhat by arguing that it’s a HR matter for the Houses of the Oireachtas Service. That’s all very well but the issue relates to the inquiry and its workings.

It’s now an issue of confidence and the committee needs to come out from behind its closed-door meetings and deal with this matter head on. Otherwise the whole project risks being tarnished. Given that its work has cost almost €3.5 million to date, the public won’t be very forgiving come election time if it comes a cropper.

Twitter: @CiaranHancock1