Banking scandal - Inquiry must be open and unfettered

IT IS the hope that dare not speak its name; it may yet only be whispered even in the secure confines of 65-66 Lower Mount Street, but there is a nascent hope amongst Fianna Fáil’s true believers that they may have weathered the very worst of the storm.

The most faithful, the unshakeable hard core, believe that time may yet become their elixir and that if they can defer an election until the very last possible moment — June, 2012 — they might not face the devastation predicted should they have to go to the polls anytime soon.

Maybe this optimism, this unexpected mirage on the horizon, is the catalyst for the notion that sections of the banking inquiry, which expected to be formally announced after today’s Cabinet meeting, might yet be conducted in camera.