Govt to add two more Senators to banking inquiry to secure majority

The Government is to add two more Senators to the banking inquiry to make sure it has a majority on the committee.

Fine Gael's Michael D'Arcy and Labour senator Susan O'Keeffe will be added to the inquiry later today.

The move means the inquiry will go from nine members to 11, with the Government having a six-five majority.

The move comes after two Labour senators failed to show up at a meeting last week, where Fianna Fáil's Marc MacSharry was picked to sit on the committee instead of Susan O'Keeffe.

"When this Government came to power, it initially said that it was going to be ushering in a new era of transparency," said Fianna Fáil senator Paschal Mooney.

"But the events of the last week have shown that this has been a hollow truth - and in fact what we are now witnessing is political skulduggery at the very highest level."