THE GREEN Party has said it is reasonably confident that an inquiry into the banking crisis will contain strong public elements following a 50-minute meeting between Taoiseach Brian Cowen and party leader John Gormley yesterday that was dominated by the issue.
Green Party chairman Dan Boyle said last night he believed the Government would opt for a “hybrid” inquiry, with both a private and public phase, that would satisfy the demands of the Greens that it be open and public, with meaningful Oireachtas involvement.
Mr Cowen and Mr Gormley met for nearly an hour in Government Buildings to discuss a range of topics. But the meeting was largely taken up by the impasse between both parties on the form the inquiry should take: a privately-conducted commission of inquiry or a public inquiry under the aegis of an Oireachtas committee. The meeting was described as routine and productive. Sources said there “was not a huge gap” between both party leaders on the issue.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan is to bring a memo to a Cabinet meeting this morning outlining the range of options open to the Government in terms of investigating the circumstances which gave rise to the banking crisis. It is understood the memo will take account of the outcome of yesterday’s meeting.
Mr Lenihan is to outline the proposals in the Dáil this afternoon on its first sitting day after the Christmas recess.
Mr Boyle, also his party’s finance spokesman, said Mr Gormley had put forward a few principles at the meeting to which the wider Green Party had agreed. They were: that the inquiry be public, open, have Oireachtas involvement, and that it be an informed process.
“I would be reasonably confident that those elements would be included in whatever the Government agrees,” he said. “I think what you are going to see, hopefully, is some kind of a hybrid whereby there will be an expert involvement made up of people with experience and expertise in the field to provide source documents for an Oireachtas grouping to hold public hearings.”
However, the compromise proposal is expected to draw further criticism from the Opposition parties in the Dáil today, with a two-day debate commencing on a Labour Party motion calling for a full parliamentary inquiry.
Green sources argued yesterday that while the compromise proposal may be strongly attacked by Fine Gael and Labour, the junior Coalition partner had succeeded in overcoming Fianna Fáil reluctance by getting agreement on an earlier inquiry and by ensuring that some elements would be in public.
Labour Party justice spokesman Pat Rabbitte and George Lee of Fine Gael both demanded a full open parliamentary investigation.
Mr Rabbitte, who has drafted a Bill to facilitate a parliamentary inquiry into banking, alleged that the latest Government move was a ruse to “wriggle” its way out of the causes of the banking crisis.
He contended that the Government wanted to adapt the essentially private commission of investigation mechanism to allow some elements to be held in public. This would be no more than a Dáil debate lasting a day or two.
“This would be the kiss of death for the kind of meaningful public inquiry sought by pretty much everyone except the Government.
“Half-promising an inquiry of uncertain structure and timing is an old-style Fianna Fáil stroke calculated to measure what the Government can get away with,” he told a Labour convention in Kilmallock, Co Limerick, last night.
Mr Lee said any inquiry into the failures in banking must be held out in the open in the full glare of public scrutiny
“The reality is that the collapse of trust has led to the breakdown of the banking system and a further deterioration in faith in the regulatory system. There is absolutely no way trust can be restored behind locked doors and Government suggestions of a ‘closed inquiry’ cannot be tolerated.”