PAC unlikely to conduct banking collapse inquiry

The long-awaited banking inquiry is unlikely to be conducted by the Public Accounts Committee, Fianna Fáil’s finance spokesperson has said in the aftermath of controversy surrounding his colleague and committee chairman, John McGuinness.

Michael McGrath said because of the ‘realpolitik’ of the situation, the committee unlikely to carry out the inquiry into events leading up to the banking collapse. An Oireachtas Committee investigation into the collapse of the banking system and the events leading up to the introduction of the State guarantee of the banks in Sep 2008 is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2014.

Mr McGrath said that Mr McGuinness was “well capable” of chairing the PAC during a bank inquiry, but it was very doubtful that the Government “would be agreeable” to this option.