Lenihan poised to name head of banking crisis investigation

FINANCE Minister Brian Lenihan is expected to tentatively appoint the head of the proposed Commission of Investigation into the banking crisis “in the coming days”.

Addressing a sitting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance and Public Service yesterday, which was dealing with the terms of reference of the investigation, Mr Lenihan said that it was his preference that the banking inquiry will be conducted by one individual, who will be from overseas and will have the relevant EU financial expertise.

While no fixed start date for the commission has been named as yet, it will be carried out in parallel – but independent of – two other reviews; namely a report from the Joint Committee on Finance and an external review into the role and effectiveness of the Department of Finance during the banking crisis. Mr Lenihan said that the composition of the review body into the latter will be finalised by the end of the year.