Banking Inquiry to receive legal advice on Drumm's videolink offer
Members of the Banking Inquiry committee are due to receive legal advice today on the offer by David Drumm to give evidence via videolink from the US.
The former chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank has already submitted a written statement to the investigation's team.
The 11 members are scheduled to meet tomorrow to discuss the legal advice.
A decision on hearing the video evidence has split the inquiry, with TDs Michael McGrath, Eoghan Murphy, and Joe Higgins, and senators Michael D’Arcy and Seán Barrett said to be opposing the move, as reported in today's
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Mr Murphy is also ready to face being kicked out of the probe if the video evidence is agreed to and he refuses to go along with it, Oireachtas , the newspaper's sources said.
“Why give him special privilege? There are legal risks, but there’s also the principle of it. It risks undermining the Oireachtas and affecting public opinion in it,” he said.
Mr Murphy opposed the inquiry accepting Mr Drumm’s written statement at a meeting last week. His position on Mr Drumm’s evidence has hardened since then, sources say.
Mr Drumm — who refuses to return to Ireland to be questioned on Anglo by gardaí — is also set to contradict Brian Cowen’s evidence to the inquiry by saying the former taoiseach was lobbied about banking issues relating to the guarantee.
It is understood that the committee was warned last week by its legal advisors that taking Mr Drumm’s evidence this way could create grounds for a judicial review by anyone adversely mentioned in it.
Mr McGrath told RTÉ on Saturday that it was “just not acceptable” that Mr Drumm be afforded the opportunity to give video-link evidence.
