Ministers to sign off on banking inquiry plan
The Government is now likely to agree to an inquiry into the banking crisis with elements to be held in public and private.
Ministers will sign off on the plan at this morning's Cabinet meeting. Full details will be announced in the Dáil later today by Finance Minister Brian Lenihan.
Fianna Fáil ministers will be pushed into the public element of the inquiry following the backlash over reports it would all be done behind closed doors.
Some of that backlash even came from the Greens and some Fianna Fáil backbenchers.
Ministers are now likely to agree to a Commission of Investigation type process to do a lot of the work in private.
Public hearings, with key figures being questioned, would then be conducted by an Oireachtas sub-committee.
Communications Minister Eamon Ryan said there has to be just one aim.
"The banking system has to have the confidence of the people," Minister Ryan said. "Banks depend on confidence, I think it is essential we have a really robust and thorough inquiry to give that confidence… that we've learned the lessons from the mistakes of the past, that we are not going to see them repeated."
But this compromise proposal is unlikely to satisfy Fine Gael and Labour who are expected to contest it when the Dáil returns this afternoon.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said the public has a right to know what happened to their money.
"It is the people of this country who have suffered the consequences of the failure in the banks - businesses going to the wall, people losing their jobs, people having their pay cut," Deputy Gilmore said.
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