Cabinet Meets Amid Reports' Concern

A specially convened Cabinet meeting is beginning this afternoon to discuss two new reports examining the Government and Regulator's handling of the banking crisis.

The reports by the new Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan and by banking experts Klaus Regling and Max Watson examine the period up to the beginning of the crises in 2008. The reports are expected to criticise the Government’s budgetary policy under Brian Cowen when he was minister for finance during those years.

This morning, the Labour Party called for the immediate publication of the reports which the Government has had in their possession for a week.

The party's finance spokeswoman Joan Burton said any delays in publishing the studies would "only fuel suspicion that the Taoiseach wants time to prepare his rebuttal of any criticisms made in the reports."

Ms Burton said the Taoiseach had been defensive about his role to date and if that continued, she claimed, it would show he was unable to learn the lessons of past mistakes, and was therefore unworthy of office as Taoiseach.

Both documents will be published in the next few days, and will form the basis for an inquiry, which will be established by the end of this month and report by the end of this year. The Financial Regulator and the Central Bank are both expected to receive heavy criticism in the reports.

(DW/BMcC)