Cost of banking inquiry reaches €3.5m but is ‘on track’, says report

The costs of the Oireachtas banking inquiry have risen to €3.5 million, new figures show.

A progress report released by the inquiry shows the cost increased by €1.3 million in the last quarter.

The inquiry’s scoping and establishment costs amounted €1 million and the running costs of the inquiry from November 6th until June 30th amounted to €2.47million. The report states the project is “on track”.

The inquiry is backed by 51 staff in the inquiry support centre, made up of 24 in its secretariat and administration, 20 in its investigation team and a seven-strong legal team.

The progress report states that between November and the end of June €1.97 million had been spent on inquiry staffing, made up of payments of €834,000 to the investigation team, €908,000 to the secretariat and €234,000 to members’ staff.

In relation to external services, the inquiry has spent €164,000 on legal costs and an additional €160,000 to the context team.

The public hearing costs total €136,000, with witness expenses of €9,000 and miscellaneous costs of €29,000.

The inquiry is currently going through the nexus phase, which has heard evidence from people such as former taoisigh Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen about decisions taken in the lead-up to and following the banking collapse in the State.

The inquiry has received 47,000 documents from the participants – some 580,000 pages – during this phase.

This is the second progress report from the committee and a final update with the inquiry report is due by the end of November.

The committee’s work began in May 2014 with scoping and the terms of reference being agreed, along with other set-up work.

The context phase, which set out the background to the financial crisis in 2008, involved 34 witnesses appearing at 31 public sessions from December to March.