Kenny urges Drumm to co-operate with banking inquiry

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has urged David Drumm to co-operate fully with the Oireachtas banking inquiry.

Members of the inquiry will discuss next week whether to allow former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm give evidence via video link.

Mr Drumm told the inquiry he will not comply with a direction to physically attend a hearing but has offered to appear via video from the US where he is living.

Mr Kenny said it is the responsibility every witness called by the committee to follow its directions.

He said: “Anybody who the banking inquiry is in contact with has a responsibility to co-operate fully and completely and that includes Mr Drumm.”

The inquiry is to receive further legal advice on Monday about whether he should appear via video link.

Two members of the committee, including Fianna Fáil’s finance spokesman Michael McGrath, are vehemently opposed to facilitating Mr Drumm in this manner.

Speaking this morning, committee member Pearse Doherty said the inquiry had no powers to compel Mr Drumm to attend as he lives outside this jurisdiction.

He said a question and answer session by video link would provide an opportunity to test a written statement from Mr Drumm, who Mr Doherty described as a key player in an institution “integral” to the inquiry.

"He has got in touch with the committee secretariat to suggest that he would [give evidence ]by video link and that is what we now have to discuss and consider as a committee, but will only do so after we have received legal advice in relation to a number of aspects," the Sinn Féin TD told RTÉ radio.

“It will be for the committee to decide- with all of the information- whether we should proceed in that matter or whether we want to reject it and treat the witness as someone who is not compliant with one of the directions.”

Mr Drumm moved to the US six months after resigning from the stricken bank in 2008.

Gardaí are currently seeking his extradition. He has previously refused offers to return to Ireland and give his perspective on the collapse of the financial institution, estimated to have cost the taxpayer €30 billion.

Banking inquiry members will discuss Mr Drumm’s proposal during a private meeting next Tuesday.

The committee has demonstrated flexibility for some witnesses and former ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet gave evidence at an alternative venue (the Institute for International and European Affairs in Dublin) while on a visit to Ireland.

However, Mr Doherty was keen to stress it was not a straightforward situation and the Director of Public Prosecutions had the power to intervene in order to block witnesses from giving evidence.

“We do have a responsibility to test the evidence, to get new evidence from somebody who has a very senior position in terms of the bank, but we have to mindful of all the considerations that are out there,” he added.

A number of committee members are understood to be unhappy with Mr Drumm’s proposal and are unwilling to accommodate him on his own terms given his “fugitive” status.

Gardaí are seeking Mr Drumm’s extradition to face charges linked to his alleged role in the collapse of Anglo Irish.

The extradition order came as a result of a file compiled by the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation and the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement and given to the Director of Public Prosecutions in 2011.

Commenting today, Fianna Fáil finance spokesperson and fellow committee member Michael McGrath said allowing Mr Drumm to give his evidence in such a way would constitute a “grave error”.

"In the first instance, Mr Drumm should return to Ireland to cooperate with and support the criminal investigations underway... If this engagement with Mr Drumm were to proceed, I am deeply concerned that comments made remotely from the United States could prejudice forthcoming criminal trials in Ireland," he said in a statement.

“Allowing Mr Drumm to give evidence to the banking inquiry on his terms from the US – while at the same time he refuses to cooperate with the Irish criminal justice system – should not be acceptable to a committee of our national parliament.”

Mr McGrath said any analogy drawn between the special arrangements for Mr Trichet and the committee’s current predicament regarding Mr Drumm is misleading, as the former was never under direction to appear at a hearing in Government Buildings and voluntarily gave an account of his involvement in bailout talks.