Banking committee - Pantomime performance

Nearly all of the politicians involved in the fiasco around the membership of the banking inquiry committee have done their profession a disservice and have further diminished our parliament in the eyes of a weary, increasingly cynical citizenship.

Fianna Fáil spotted a chance to humiliate the Government and, irrespective of the huge and extremely important issue at hand, grabbed it. So much for Micheál Martin’s promise to end Punch and Judy politics.

For their part the Government have shown a staggering ineptitude. Labour senator Susan O’Keeffe suggests she sought a pair for the vital meeting but it is unclear that her request was granted, or that she knew whether it was or not. This was worse than shoddy for someone paid north of €80,000 a year for two-and-a-half days’ work a week. The Government decision to belatedly add two members to regain control of the committee brings an air of a national school pantomime to the affair even if it would be more than bizarre if Fianna Fáil were to dominate the banking inquiry.

This performance was look-away embarrassing.