IBOA call for independent inquiry

The head of the Irish Bank Officials Association has called for an independent bank inquiry into the collapse of the financial sector instead of the proposed Oireachtas inquiry.

In a speech to the ICTU conference in Belfast, Larry Broderick said: “We are now five years into the crisis and there has been no genuinely comprehensive inquiry in the Republic of how this crisis came about, who was responsible, and who should still be held to account. A handful of reports have been reproduced on specific issues but [we haven’t had] the comprehensive investigation that is necessary to understand the interactions between the various players — such as senior banking executives, regulatory authorities, government departments, developers and politicians.

“This much we do know: the crisis was not caused by a handful of rogue elements in one bank, no matter how disgraceful they have been revealed to be in recent newspaper revelations. The crisis was not even caused by a few rogues in a few banks. It was a systemic failure on a colossal scale — with many authors.”