Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan has announced the appointment of former German government adviser and European Commission official Klaus Regling to conduct one of the preliminary investigations into the crisis in the banking system.
The Minister said Mr Regling’s appointment “follows discussions over the past week”.
He is currently chairman of KR Economics, a Brussels-based economic and financial consultancy.
German chancellor Angela Merkel appointed him in 2008 as a member of a commission to advise her government on the reform of financial regulation.
That body, known as the Issing Commission, completed its work last March.
From 2001 to 2008 he was the European Commission’s director general for economic and financial affairs. Before that, he was a director general in the German ministry of finance where he specialised in European economic and monetary union. He also worked with the International Monetary Fund for more than a decade.
“I am confident Mr Regling’s extensive experience of senior economic and financial positions in the German ministry of finance and the European Union will ensure a robust preliminary report that identifies the key causes of the crisis and provides a firm basis for the work of the statutory Commission of Inquiry,” Mr Lenihan said in a statement today.
“His experience of senior economic positions will be particularly important in analysing the international, social and macro-economic policy environment in which the banking crisis developed.
“Mr Regling’s report, which in tandem with the report from [Central Bank] Governor Honohan, will set the framework for an efficient and hard-hitting inquiry.
“It is in the interest of this country that we get to the real causes of the financial crisis. It will ensure that the future regulation of our financial system and the management of our economy will secure sustainable economic growth.
“As a country it is important that we move beyond the catch cries of the crisis to a real analysis of what went wrong,” the Minister said.
Mr Regling has said he intends to take up his duties shortly.
Mr Lenihan has agreed to his request that an assistant be appointed to help him complete his work within the timeframe set out by the Government.
It is understood that Mr Regling accepted the appointment late this afternoon.
The Government has announced two “scoping” inquiries into the crisis. One is to be conducted by Mr Regling, the other by Central Bank Governor Patrick Honohan.
The two preliminary inquiries are due to be completed by the end of May. A commission will then be established and asked to report by the end of the year. Its terms of reference will be set by the Oireachtas but its proceedings will be conducted in private.