MINISTER FOR Finance Brian Lenihan will meet finance spokespeople from Opposition parties next week to discuss the terms of reference for the proposed statutory Commission of Investigation into the banking crisis.
Plans for next Tuesday’s meeting were made yesterday, as the Minister reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to proceed with the commission. He said he had been researching potential candidates to head the inquiry, ruling out the prospect of an Irish lawyer taking the role.
Earlier this week, the governor of the Central Bank, Patrick Honohan, cast doubts over the need for a statutory commission in the wake of the two banking reports that have been published.
But Mr Lenihan yesterday said he believed it was necessary. “I think what happened in Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide is so serious that I find it very difficult to accept how we can proceed other than by way of a statutory inquiry.”
He was speaking after discussing the Central Bank Reform Bill at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service. The Minister did not accept that the proposed scope of the inquiry is likely to be narrower than originally expected.
He said he was “very open to the ideas of the Opposition”, on the issue but added that it was not within his gift to “procure the attendance” of the Central Bank governor at next week’s meeting, as suggested by Labour finance spokeswoman Joan Burton. She had argued that tapping into the governor’s expertise could lead to a narrowing of the terms of reference or perhaps remove the need for a commission. “We might save ourselves a bag of money,” said Ms Burton.
“I’ll have to talk to him now and see does he want to participate further in the process,” the Minister said after the committee meeting.
Fine Gael’s finance spokesman at the committee, Kieran O’Donnell, said there was “huge merit” in the proposal to meet Mr Honohan.
Earlier, Mr Lenihan told the committee he had been considering potential candidates for leading the commission’s work.
“The Government is very much of the view that a lawyer from Ireland is very much not the kind of person to chair the commission.”
When asked if the commission would “name and shame” individuals within financial institutions, the Minister replied: “Yes, of course”.
The Minister also outlined plans to amend the Central Bank Bill to take account of concerns put forward by the Credit Union movement, which he described as a “powerful” lobby.
The Bill had proposed to increase the powers of their regulator, the Registrar, as a counterbalance measure for increasing the proportion of five-year-plus loans a union could have on its books. After intense lobbying, the Minister has proposed dropping those wider powers.
