Give Me a Crash Course In . . . the banking inquiry

What's it all about? The 11-member Oireachtas Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis was established in November 2014 to investigate the reasons why Ireland had a systemic banking crisis in late 2008 and the policy actions taken in the wake of the crash. It began its hearings in December, under the chairmanship of Ciarán Lynch of the Labour Party. It has held two public hearings a week since the end of April, interviewing the main players about policy actions taken before and after the crash.

Why did it take so long to inquire into a crash that happened seven years ago? Fine Gael and the Labour Party promised an inquiry on taking office, in spring 2011, but left it on the back burner until they were effectively on the run-in to the next general election, perhaps just in time to remind the electorate that it was all Fianna Fáil's fault.

What have we learned? The committee has unearthed a lot of detail about the night of the bank guarantee, on September 29th, 2008, and the events that led the country to need its EU-ECB-IMF bailout programme. It now seems that Brian Cowen, as taoiseach, decided that we should issue a blanket guarantee to the banks in September 2008 and had pretty much made up his mind on the issue before the night, according to Kevin Cardiff, the former secretary general of the department of finance. We also now know that the European Central Bank told us that we would have to fend for ourselves in sorting out the banks in September 2008 and twice opposed us "burning bondholders" between then and March 2011. The IMF was more disposed to this course of action. Cardiff's evidence has probably been the most electric to date. He claimed Ireland was pushed into the bailout.

Who's up next? The public gallery will be packed next Thursday when Cowen makes the first of two appearances at the committee. He will be quizzed about his time as minister for finance and taoiseach in the years before the crash. On Wednesday his fellow former finance minister, and former European commissioner, Charlie McCreevy is likely to be quizzed on the many tax incentive schemes that he introduced to boost construction during his time in charge of the public finances.

What about the Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide bankers? For months the committee tiptoed around the calling of Anglo and Irish Nationwide executives, largely because of legal cases. But it recently directed a number of the banks' former directors to appear, including the former Anglo chairman Seán FitzPatrick, Anglo's one-time chief executive David Drumm and Michael Fingleton of Irish Nationwide.

What is this costing the taxpayer? Mercifully, the bill for the banking inquiry will be only a fraction of what it cost to run the tribunals. It cost €2.2 million in its first 10 months, with the final bill expected to be for between €5 million and €6 million.

When will it end and what will it tell us? Public hearings run each week in July. The committee will return in September to conclude hearing from witnesses. It plans to publish its report by the end of November. If a general election is called in the meantime the inquiry will wind up and all of its work will have been for nothing.