Banking inquiry expected to begin before Christmas

The Dáil is expected to give the green light today to a motion that will enable the banking inquiry to begin oral hearings in the next few weeks.

Committee chairman Ciarán Lynch said he expected that the public hearings would begin before Christmas.

Giving the inquiry the powers of investigation and compulsion required to complete its work will go before the Dáil this evening and to the Seanad later in the week.

The members of the banking inquiry will meet tomorrow to agree a schedule, including oral hearings, to be followed between now and Christmas.

Mr Lynch dismissed claims that the inquiry was bogged down, insisting that it was meeting its scheduled targets and that oral hearings would begin shortly.

“Significant preparatory work had been carried out over the past few months and a contract has been signed with an expert group to advise on the first phase of the committee’s work,” he said.

Business consultants

That contract is with business consulting group FTI, in association with Karl Whelan, professor of economics at UCD. Prof Whelan declined to get involved with a pro-bono phase of the committee’s work.

The consultants will provide technical briefings to TDs and Senators on the committee in the first phase of the inquiry, which will examine the context of the banking collapse. This will involve technical briefings about areas such as bank lending and liquidity management, mortgage exposures, and the nature, cost and scope of the decision to provide a blanket guarantee in September 2008.

Public hearings

During the context phase, there will also be public hearings, with relevant witnesses being asked to provide information that will inform the nexus phase of the inquiry.

An examination of the previous reports into the collapse will form part of the context phase.

“We can learn whether the earlier reports can add value to this inquiry and whether there were some areas that were not examined fully before now,” said Mr Lynch.

The nexus phase will examine the collapse in detail, including banking systems and practices, regulatory and supervisory systems and the crisis management and policy responses that developed.

“The inquiry should be completed and a final report finalised by November of next year,” said Mr Lynch.