A SENIOR Minister has called for a rerun of the referendum on parliamentary inquiries to ensure there is a proper investigation into the banking collapse.
Minister for Energy and Communications Pat Rabbitte said yesterday that he would like to see the issue put before the people again in a calm and considered manner.
Mr Rabbitte told The Irish Times that the wording of the amendment rejected by the Irish people last October would probably need to be modified to take account of the concerns that led to the No vote.
“I am in favour of the Government seeking to run again a referendum that would give a parliamentary committee the proper investigative powers to get to the bottom of what happened in the banks.
“I would like to see the matter being reconsidered with an appropriate wording being put before the people,” he said.
On the question of whether the public accounts Committee (PAC) or the finance committee should conduct the inquiry, Mr Rabbitte said there might be a case for setting up a specially dedicated committee to look into the issue.
He added that Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness, chairman of the PAC, was probably the wrong person to head an inquiry into the banking collapse. The Minister said the public would have concerns about a former Fianna Fáil minister being in charge of the inquiry.
He also said Mr McGuinness claim that senior civil servants were involved in a plot to prevent him leading the inquiry showed “a dangerous tendency to offer conclusions before the inquiry starts”.
Mr Rabbitte said the Government had not made a decision which of two competing Oireachtas committees should hold the inquiry into the banking collapse. He suggested that a special new committee might be the best way to deal with the issue.
Mr Rabbitte said the PAC might not be the best committee to conduct the inquiry as its essential role was to audit departmental spending. “What is at issue here is public policy, the weakness in the regulatory system and the failure of the banks.”
The Minister said these matters might better be dealt with by the Oireachtas finance committee but that there was an argument for a new special committee to look into one of the most momentous events in the history of the State. He expressed the hope the Government would make a decision before the end of July on the best way to proceed.
Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin said yesterday that he had an open mind on which committee should look into the banking collapse. He was determined an inquiry would happen as it was essential a full light be shone on what had taken place on the night of the banking guarantee. Mr Howlin said while the PAC had done a good deal of work on the matter, what was required was a policy-focused inquiry and there was a lot of talent in the Dáil and Seanad to carry it out. He pledged that the most robust form of inquiry within the constraints of the Constitution would be held.
In an article in yesterday’s Sunday Independent Mr McGuinness claimed a cabal of senior civil servants was seeking to frustrate his attempt to have the banking inquiry conducted by the PAC. “There is at the heart of our administration a reactionary, unprofessional and inefficient group of senior public service managers whose veneration of the status quo and the perks, pensions and pay it gives them is costing this country a very large fortune,” he wrote.
