Claims and counter-claims have led to a split among members of the inquiry and a call for the investigation into the banking collapse to move into public session.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny said that the Irish people “suffered great hardship” because of the bank guarantee as the Dáil debated a motion to establish an inquiry.
Letters have gone missing from the Department of Finance and – it was revealed this week – Bank of Ireland in a development described as “highly suspicious” by the Sinn Féin deputy Pearse Doherty.
Officials have been unable to locate missing two letters from the period after the bank guarantee despite “an extensive search” while Bank of Ireland has admitted: “We cannot find a copy of our own records.”
Toner Quinn examines Ireland’s musical response the economic crash and bank guarantee – an “act of betrayal so shocking … the country throbbed with pain”.
Enda Kenny made a ‘verbal’ request to his department’s Secretary General for records related to the decision to issue a blanket guarantee of the Irish banking system.
Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty says that new figures from the Minister of Finance showed that the Central Bank has approved seven full applications for hikes in charges.
Who chairs it and who sits on it have still to be worked out, but the banking inquiry committee is unlikely to hear evidence publicly until after the local and European elections, TheJournal.ie has learned.
The Department of Finance is now making efforts to locate two letters related to the bank guarantee which have gone missing, according to Minister Michael Noonan.
The Minister was responding to revelations that two documents related to the bank guarantee have gone missing from the Department of Finance, but it’s not clear if officials are trying to find them.
The chair of the Public Accounts Committee said he is “appalled” by the news that documents related to the bank guarantee have gone missing in the Department of Finance.
A letter from David Drumm to Brian Lenihan in October 2008 has been released in full to the Sinn Féin finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty and is revealed in full for the first time.
The disappearance of the original versions of two letters copied to finance minister Brian Lenihan has been uncovered by the Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty through Freedom of Information.
They are John Bowe, former head of treasury at Anglo Irish Bank, Peter Fitzpatrick former finance director at Irish Life and Permanent and Denis Casey, former chief executive of ILP.
On the anniversary of the bank guarantee, the leaders of four Irish organisations reflect on the 2008 decision – and the subsequent changes they have observed in their sectors over the past five years.
In the last few years, there’s been a noticeable decrease in the numbers taking to the streets to voice their anger. We asked the experts — why are the Irish so reluctant to protest?
The books are not a complete record of who visited the Departments in the weeks before the bank guarantee was issued but provide a fascinating insight.
A morning shower or two, then rain
Max: 8 °C
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