Banking inquiry - Reveal Cabinet discussions

There is a scene towards the end of Oliver Stone’s movie JFK where Kevin Costner, playing the role of District Attorney Jim Garrison, walks, defeated, out of the courthouse, telling his son that he will have to wait at least 30 years before finding out if his theory about the pPresident’s assassination was correct.

Irish citizens may have to wait even longer to discover the full story behind a less humanly tragic but equally momentous event in our nation’s history — the late-night ministerial discussions which approved the ill-advised and lamentable bank guarantee. Why? Cabinet confidentiality.

At least that is what the Oireachtas committee holding the banking inquiry has been advised. The committee has been told that Cabinet confidentiality protects any discussions that led to the guarantee which — as we have all learned to our cost — had catastrophic economic consequences.