Cabinet To Discuss Bank Inquiry

Speculation is mounting that the Government may be relenting to increased pressure from the opposition to hold a public inquiry into the banking bailouts, as the Cabinet meets to discuss the issue today.

According to reports this morning, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party held coalition talks on the matter until late last night. The Green Party leader John Gormley met Taoiseach Brian Cowen before addressing Green Party TDs on the issue.

The Green Party are believed to be pushing for an open inquiry, with chairman Dan Boyle saying last night he believed the Government would opt for a "hybrid" compromise, with both a private and public element to the inquest.

The movement on the issue comes after an intense day of pressure yesterday after the main opposition party, Fine Gael, publicly called on the Government for an open inquiry.

Spaeaking on the issue yesterday, Fine Gael's Deputy Leader & Finance Spokesperson, Richard Bruton, rejected the Government's mooted proposals to hold an internal inquiry, saying that conducting the inquest behind "closed doors" would damage the investigation.

Mr Bruton said the public had a right to see those involved in the banking crisis held accountable in public and that the effectiveness of such an inquiry would be damaged by holding it in private.

"The Dail must assert its duty to hold public policy and its execution up to scrutiny and this must be done in public.

"The general public have in many cases seen their livelihoods destroyed and taxpayers have been lumbered with debts that will beset them for years," the Fine Gael TD said.

He added: "They have a right to see those who landed them with these debts publicly explain what went wrong."

Mr Bruton went on to say that the essence of effective regulation was proper accountability and that accountability should have consequences. He said that the people involved were public people who have a duty to be accountable in public to the people whose livelihoods have been destroyed.

On Friday, the Daíl's second largest opposition party, the Labour Party, published a Private Members Motion calling for a committee of Dail Eireann to conduct an open investigation into the banking crisis.

Labour Spokesperson on Finance, Joan Burton, said that there was now an unstoppable tide of opinion in favour of a full inquiry.

Ms Burton said: "The public is entitled to answers as to why our system failed so that we can ensure that the mistakes of the past are never repeated. In that sense, the establishment of a banking enquiry is as much about the future as it is about the past.

"Even the Government has now backed down in the face of the tide of support for an inquiry and dropped its earlier opposition, but I suspect that their tactics will now be to delay the holding of an inquiry for as long as possible."

(DW/GK)