€5m banking inquiry not a waste if it fails, says Howlin

THE minister in charge of public spending has said the €5million Banking Inquiry will not have wasted taxpayers’ money, even if it does not complete its work.

Brendan Howlin spoke out as frustration grows over the fact that a first draft of the inquiry’s final report was rejected when committee members raised concerns about it.

Members have also said it would be ‘very challenging’ to complete the report before the deadline in eight weeks.

Some members have already indicated that they will not sign off on the report in its current format, and if the work is not salvaged by the time of the dissolution of the Dáil, early next year, the inquiry will collapse.

As members met yesterday to consider a raft of urgent amendments to the report, the Minister for Public Expenditure said yesterday: ‘The banking inquiry is extremely important.

‘One of the unfinished pieces of business was to know the ins and outs of the decision-making that led to a banking collapse. I believe that still the work of the Banking Inquiry has been valuable because we have a lot of testimony that, over time, will add significantly to the sum of knowledge. I sincerely hope the members can come to a consensus finding.’

When asked whether it would be a waste of money if the committee did not deliver a final report, he said: ‘Certainly not, we have already learned a lot. In many ways it was a path finder of a committee on how we go about Oire- achtas inquiries. We have to live within constitutional restraints but, having said that, the exercise has been valuable and I hope the final report will be impactful.’

The committee has a number of meetings scheduled this week to discuss the findings of a ‘finalisation team’ of Senator Susan O’Keeffe and TD Eoghan Murphy, after an emergency meeting on Saturday broke up following six hours of, at times, heated discussions.

It was decided to let Ms O’Keeffe and Mr Murphy try and find a solution.