Final draft of banking inquiry report to be distributed today

Report expected to examine 11 key areas including the banks and role of State authorities

The final draft report of the Oireachtas banking inquiry will be distributed to members this morning.

The finalisation team tasked with rescuing the report worked late last night to meet the self-imposed deadline of 8am.

The report is expected to examine 11 key areas including burden sharing, the banks, the role of State authorities, the guarantee and the bailout.

Members tabled over 100 amendments which have to be addressed in today’s final draft.

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The committee will meet on Wednesday and Thursday to agree the conclusions, recommendations and executive summary of the report.

It has to be agreed by Thursday in order to be given to interested parties by Saturday.

Anyone named in the draft report will be contacted on Saturday and given two weeks to respond, Fianna Fáil finance spokesman Michael McGrath said.

He insisted on Tuesday good progress was being made on completing the report but said the committee was operating under serious time constraints.

“Our work is inching forward. It is a painstaking process going through a draft report line by line,” said Mr McGrath who is a member of the inquiry committee.

He said the team would have a revised draft available by Wednesday morning. Committee members would have until 6pm on Wednesday to submit amendments, which would be discussed on Thursday.

He said this would be done “with a view hopefully to agreeing a draft report on Thursday which would then be sent out to anyone named in the report, any organisation referenced in the report on Saturday”.

Mr McGrath said anyone named would have “a statutory two week period in which to write back and make their views known”.

“It remains a very challenging process because of the really serious time constraints that we’re operating under, and the fact that the 2013 Act places very tight restrictions on the type of findings that we can make.”

He was referring to the Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Act 2013.

“But I’m confident we will get a report finalised and hopefully agreed in draft form by the weekend,” Mr McGrath said.