Lucinda Creighton: Reconvene banking inquiry

The Oireachtas probe into the banking crash needs to be reconvened in emergency session to deal with controversy surrounding the evidence of the former chief of IBRC, Renua leader Lucinda Creighton has demanded.

Ms Creighton insisted that the “bombshell” testimony of Mike Aynsley stating he had been told the Finance Department wanted assets sold at €100m less than the highest bidder warranted immediate scrutiny.

Mr Aynsley was one of the final witnesses to give evidence to the probe into the financial crash before its summer break last week when he revealed the pressure he was under from the finance department over deals.

Ms Creighton said it was not acceptable that the allegations would hang around for another six weeks until the inquiry reconvenes in September. The former Fine Gael minister insisted that Finance Minister Michael Noonan had serious questions to answer on the matter and should be made to do so now.

“We need to hear from the Department of Finance, and from the minister, precisely what instructions were given, precisely what happened and I don’t think it is acceptable that Irish citizens have to wait now for in excess of a month to find out, or to have any response, to what happened in the banking inquiry,” the Renua leader said.

Ms Creighton warned that the allegations were so serious that a delay until the autumn was not acceptable and the Dáil needed to swing back into action.

Ms Creighton also criticised the failure of the Government to reconvene the Seanad last week to discuss Eurostat’s surprise ruling that Irish Water could not be considered financially independent of the State, as she called for the banking inquiry to take the initiative.

“That’s what the national parliament is for. I understand there was an effort to reconvene the Seanad the other day and that effort was dismissed.

“I think if the independence of the banking inquiry is to be proven — and if we are to have confidence in the independence of that body, there have been very significant questions marks over that since the beginning —then I think the banking inquiry needs to display some muscle,” she said.

Ms Creighton said Ireland had a culture of setting up inquiries into controversies, but there was a mixed record of results.

Referring to the separate probe into the sale of Siteserv by IBRC, formerly Anglo Irish Bank, and other deals involving the bank which cost the taxpayer losses of more than €10m, she said: “This is part of the problem. We are great at setting up inquiries in this country. We are not so good at getting to the end of them.”

Ms Creighton was speaking at a policy launch by Renua where it called for more probity and oversight in the area of awarding public contracts.

She said much stricter rules needed to be laid down regarding the awarding of State contracts.

The banking inquiry has been beset by controversy and the deadline for its final report has slipped back from November to January next year.