Those named in banking report to be contacted on Saturday

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

He insisted good progress was being made on completing the report due on Thursday 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. All of the members made their feedback known to the report finalisation team by late last night,” 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.