Banking inquiry report may not be ‘salvageable’ or published before election

Members of the banking inquiry have warned the multi-million-euro investigation’s year-long report into what caused the economic crisis may not be “salvageable” and, at best, may not be published before the general election.

A number of TDs and senators who comprise the 11-strong team tasked with examining how the crash occurred issued the warning before “crisis” talks this morning over the scale of the inquiry’s problems.

Members will meet today to discuss issues they have with the draft report of the inquiry they were given access to earlier this week and were expected to sign off on next month.

A number of members from different political parties have warned they cannot sign off on the document drawn up by a separate investigation team due to the scale of the alleged inaccuracies in reported witness evidence, its structure, and the fact it may need more than 1,000 amendments.

It is understood that at their closed-doors meeting today, the inquiry team will discuss whether there is any point in continuing with amending the draft report, with a deadline of noon tomorrow for changes to be submitted.

While no specific alternatives have been formally put forward, a number of possibilities expected to be tabled include publishing a recommendations-only document alongside an exact transcription of all witness evidence but without an actual report, or extending the period it has been told to complete the work.

The latter issue would almost certainly lead to the inquiry being pushed out until after the general election as it had been intended to be published in January — meaning it would, after Fennelly and IBRC, become the third such investigation to fail to conclude this side of the vote despite promises this would not happen.

A number of inquiry members said that even if a lengthy set of amendments take place the document may not be “salvageable”.