Banking collapse reports expected next week

THE TWO reports investigating Ireland’s banking collapse will be published by the Government next week, according to the schedule for Oireachtas committee meetings.

The schedule for next week’s business in Leinster House published yesterday evening shows the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service will discuss one of the reports at its meeting next Friday.

The committee has invited German economist Klaus Regling and his British co-author Max Watson to outline the findings of their preliminary investigation into the origins of the crisis in the banking system.

It suggests that the report and the other preliminary report, written by Central Bank Governor Prof Patrick Honohan, will be published by the Government next Wednesday or Thursday.

The two reports were submitted to Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan last Tuesday. He said he wanted some time to study their findings and will brief ministerial colleagues on their contents at a special meeting of Cabinet on Tuesday.

Prof Honohan has been asked to inquire into the performance of the Central Bank and Financial Regulator in the five years preceding the Government guarantee of the financial institutions in September 2008.

The report of Mr Reglin and Mr Watson is a more general inquiry, looking at the performance of the banking system in the same period, particularly their approaches to lending.

The two reports will form the basis for a statutory commission of investigation to inquire into the causes that led to the failures of the country’s largest financial institutions. The Government has given an undertaking that its terms will be published by the end of June.

The commission, which will conduct most of its investigation work in camera, will be expected to complete its work by the end of the year.