Fianna Fáil finance spokesman Michael McGrath has warned that a general election being called will essentially bring to a halt any banking inquiry that is held.

Emphasising the necessity for early public hearings, Mr McGrath said: “The sooner we get into the detail of having public hearings the better because the longer this goes on, it could just get bogged down in bureaucracy and that is the concern that’s there for the start.”

“It has a pretty catastrophic effect because we know that if the general election is called at any stage, the inquiry essentially falls,” he said.

“Legally, the safest thing to assume that if there is an election called, the inquiry collapses.”

“So that means there is absolutely no time to be wasted here, we have to get into a position where there is public hearings without a delay.”

“The calling of a general election, by accident or design, is a real risk hanging over the banking inquiry and a lot of pubnlic money is going to be spent on this inquiry. It isn’t ideal, it certainly isn’t Fianna Fáil’s preferred model but we are at the mercy of the political calendar.”