We need to investigate why our banks aren’t lending to customers

More reasons emerged this week to suggest that the best banking inquiry would not be one examining what happened in the run-up to Sept 2008, but instead one into what has happened at the Irish banks since and continues to happen.

The first inquiry is unlikely to tell us anything we don’t know already. We know most of what went wrong, why and who was responsible. We don’t need to spend a fortune to tell us more of what has been revealed in previous inquiries or in a myriad of books. If the Government proceeds with an inquiry, as it has promised but mysteriously has not implemented, it is likely to be with the intention of conducting a political show trial.

Instead, we would be better off with a public examination or a published investigation into the actions of the banks as they sought to deal with their self- inflicted crisis. We need to know how they have given out business and personal loans since, how they have dealt with those who were in loan arrears.