Bank inquiry report may not be published despite costing €5m

There is growing speculation the high-profile bank inquiry report will not be published in any form, despite costing €5m and spending over a year investigating what caused the economic crash.

Individuals central to saving the crisis-hit inquiry made the dramatic claim last night as they prepared for a meeting today, and as a senior government minister said it would not be a waste of money if the document fails to be published.

Last week a 750-page draft report was heavily criticised by members for a series of factual errors and other inaccuracies that led to claims it was “not salvageable”.

After examining the draft, which was written by a separate non-political team of back-room legal and financial investigators who have been paid more than €600,000 to date, the 11-strong TD and senator team said more than 1,000 amendments needed to be made.

At an emergency meeting on Saturday, inquiry members warned they could not sign off on the report even if drastic changes are made, and said next Tuesday’s deadline to send the document out for an unavoidable legal right of reply process — which cannot be pushed back due to the knock-on impact on the inquiry’s pre-election time-frame — may not be feasible.

In a bid to save the investigation, the inquiry “unanimously” agreed to appoint members Fine Gael TD Eoghan Murphy and Labour senator Susan O’Keeffe to draw up a new version of the report due to their previous speech-writing and journalism backgrounds.

The two government representatives have spent the past 48 hours working with a newly arranged seven-person back-room team in an attempt to salvage the report by drawing up a shorter version with a new ‘road map’ structure expected to be signed off on at a private meeting at 4pm today.

However, speaking to the Irish Examiner last night, one individual who is central to this process said while some members believe there is a 50:50 chance a report will be published, “it is more likely than not there won’t be a bank inquiry report”.

It is understood the concern from those close to the report-salvaging team is that due to the severe time constraints involved in scrapping and redrawing the 750-page document between now and next Tuesday, it is “not plausible” to have an inquiry report of any substance as there is “three months” worth of work involved.

At best, one individual said, the year-long investigation will result in a “political neutral, vanilla” document to ensure inquiry members agree instead of “fighting over a paragraph” with time a priority — and “will not be what was envisaged”.

One individual, who is central to the report-salvaging team, said while the legal deadline could be extended “a few days” to allow work to take place over the Christmas holidays, there are “real dangers” this could then cause difficulties for people given a right of reply accessing their own legal teams, further delaying the process.

Despite initial suggestions, a transcript of the inquiry’s hundreds of hours of evidence could be published alongside recommendations as a stop-gap, the inquiry has been told this is not possible.

While some inquiry members said last night they believe a report can still be agreed, there is growing speculation within the inquiry they will be unable to publish any document.

Inquiry chair and Labour Cork South Central TD Ciaran Lynch last night said the team is “working to do it [publish the report]” but declined to say whether or not the Tuesday-week deadline for the report to be given to legal teams remains.

Labour’s Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin said that it would “certainly not” be a waste of money if the inquiry failed to produce a report.