Nyberg sceptical over Oireachtas bank inquiry

The author of a report into Ireland’s banking meltdown has said he would be “surprised” if next year’s proposed banking inquiry uncovered new information and warned the crisis could be repeated because lessons have not been learned.

As the Government prepares to set up the inquiry to examine events up to and including the night of the disastrous bank guarantee, former Finnish finance ministry director general Peter Nyberg said: “I would be pretty surprised if the parliamentary inquiry would uncover something new.”

Mr Nyberg’s government- commissioned report found that “a mania” had gripped Ireland with banks, regulators, politicians, and the media failing to tackle the crisis as it developed.

However, he said the new inquiry should examine issues such as why those who warned of what was happening were ignored.

“There were a few individuals who clearly tried to warn various institutions about what might be coming but they weren’t listened to. It might be interesting to understand why they weren’t”.

In his 2011 report, those who came before him were granted anonymity. Asked if he believed such people, without anonymity, would be as forthcoming with information in any new inquiry he said: “I wouldn’t be very sure of that.”

He believes Ireland and the rest of Europe haven’t learned from the lessons of the past.

“What is being done on the supervisory and regulatory fronts in Europe partly assume that the authorities will always be there preventing or handling a crisis, and we did see, not many years ago, that this is not true.

“So the question is: why will it be true next time? But that question is not being asked anywhere yet.”

Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week, Mr Nyberg said the taped conversations between leading executives at Anglo Irish Bank which were published by the Irish Independent didn’t bring any new facts to the public.

“They did give a very lively and unpleasant feeling for the kind of hubristic company culture that existed in Anglo at the time.

“But other than that it didn’t seem that there was substantial new evidence or facts that came to light.”

Meanwhile, the Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, who was communications minister at the time of the guarantee, has attacked the Government’s plans saying the inquiry was “narrow”. He said only examining up until Sept 30 2008 was “ridiculous”.

“All your problems start and end in Sept 2008 and you don’t go beyond that, that is ridiculous.”

He said a lot more would be learned if the inquiry went beyond 2008 to 2011 and even the present day.

The Government plans to hold an Oireachtas inquiry in January, however, it is complicated by the fact that three former Anglo executives are due to stand trial on criminal charges that month.

Mr Ryan criticised the courts process, saying that “the real problem here” was that “the courts have to hurry up”.