Opposition criticises banking inquiry plan

TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen said that no one would be excluded from the Government’s inquiry into the banking crisis.

“I am available at any time, in respect of any decisions I have ever taken in public office . . . at any time,’’ he said.

Rejecting Opposition criticism of the Government’s decision, Mr Cowen said the commission of investigation’s terms of reference would be drawn up based on reports by Central Bank governor Prof Patrick Honohan and the international expert. “In the meantime, in respect of any reports they bring forward . . . if they wish to speak to any personages here in this House or elsewhere, we will all be available to talk to them as well,’’ Mr Cowen added.

“So there is no problem in relation to any of that.’’ Mr Cowen said Prof Honohan had said that a witch hunt was the answer.

“He said let’s get to the facts. And this is a way of getting to the facts,’’ he added.

“It is clear that the leaders [of the Opposition] and others in this House are not interested in getting to the facts and wish to make a political point.’’

Mr Cowen said the Government wanted to see an outcome which assembled the facts and allowed the Oireachtas to discuss and deal with those matters as it saw fit thereafter.

Mr Cowen accused Labour leader Eamon Gilmore of attempting to cover up his attempt “to prejudge, predetermine, as you have been doing all along . . .’’

Earlier, Mr Gilmore said the inquiry would be in name only, kept firmly behind closed doors, dragged out as long as possible and excluding political accountability.

The Opposition, he said, had proposed a two-stage process involving a specialist investigation establishing a book of evidence type of document which would then be the subject of examination by an Oireachtas committee.

The Government had proposed a three and arguably, four-stage process designed to drag it on for as long as possible, said Mr Gilmore.

He added that Green Party leader John Gormley had thought he had reached a compromise.

“It is a compromise which replaces his call for a public inquiry with a concession of two private inquiries instead,’’ he added.

Mr Gilmore said the process would put the matter “safely beyond the next general election’’, which was where the Taoiseach wanted to put it.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said that hundreds of thousands of Irish people were now having to pay the price for the banking crisis.

He said the Government’s proposal involved itself commissioning the initial reports, and the remit made no mention whatsoever, good, bad or indifferent, of the responsibility and role of Government in its own policy decisions, which led, in part, to the crisis.

The Government proposal for a commission, he said, amounted to “a secretive whitewash’’.

The Oireachtas was being relegated to a sideline position of no importance, or centrality, other than to be briefed by the governor of the Central Bank and the regulator and consider a report placed before it.

Mr Kenny accused Mr Cowen of being afraid of the kind of inquiry which the public wanted, not in the interests of any individual personality but because of the regulatory reforms and lax positions which Fianna Fáil-led governments had adopted and his own role as minister for finance which put the economic ship on the rocks.

“In my view, the only kind of inquiry which is going to be fruitful, beneficial, transparent, accountable, and be seen to work, is one which would have cross-party support in the Houses of the Oireachtas,’’ he added.