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.

Mr McGrath is “agnostic about which committee should hold the bank inquiry”. The Cork deputy is a member of the Finance Committee. He said one option is that a new committee could be formed to conduct the inquiry, “but that would be up to the Government to decide”.

Mr McGuinness has been in the spotlight recently following revelations about his period as a minister in the Fianna Fáil government. He was forced to answer questions after a series of stories about him, including that his son was paid €30,000 in overtime when he was minister, and that he brought his wife on three trade missions.

The Kilkenny TD temporarily stood aside from the chair last Thursday to appear before the PAC and answer questions of fellow members.

During the proceedings, one Fine Gael TD, John Deasy, claimed many in Government circles had felt McGuinness had “crossed the line” in his role as chairman and that the controversy around him was being used as an “opportunity to get rid of you as chairman.”

But other Government members on the committee denied that any pressure had been put on them to use the controversy to criticise the chairman.

In response to Mr Deasy, Mr McGuinness said he was “damn sure” that stories were being deliberately leaked about him by his former department. “I believe there are powerful forces who would not like to see a banking inquiry, and that would not like to see inquiries into other spends within the State. Maybe all those forces are at play,” he said.