The Taoiseach and the Finance Minister have defended their proposals for an inquiry into the banking crisis following attacks from the Opposition parties in the Dáil.
The Government is proposing that a Commission of Investigation into the banking crisis should report by the end of this year.
The Commission, which is to be established by the end of June, will have six months to investigate the causes of the systemic failures of Irish banking.
Its work will be preceded by two reports, one by the Governor of the Central Bank on the performance of the financial regulatory system. The second will be carried out by a recognised expert or experts, who will conduct a preliminary investigation into the causes of the banking crisis, and the lessons to be learned from it.
These reports are to be delivered by the end of May, and will inform the terms of reference of the Commission of Investigation. An Oireachtas Committee is to meet the Governor and the independent experts before they begin their work, and will consider their findings.
Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said there were a number of themes which should be examined by the probe - including the performance of individual banks and bank directors. He said the inquiry should also look at the performance and structure of the banking system, the regulatory system and the response of Government, including 'the linkage between the banking crisis and overall economic management'.
Mr Lenihan said the banking system was still fragile and that work on NAMA, the banks' capital needs and building societies needed to be completed before we turned attention to a formal inquiry. He also said the Oireachtas would be involved at every stage of the process, and an Oireachtas committee would consider the completed report, and could hold public hearings.
Government accused of 'whitewash'
Earlier, during Leaders' Questions, the Taoiseach said the Government's proposals were drawn up to ensure that any existing investigations were not cut across.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the plan was a 'secretive whitewash'. He said the Government was afraid to have the kind of enquiry that was needed because of what it would reveal about lax policy decisions. He said it was a response of insiders, for insiders, designed to protect insiders, adding that it relegated the Oireachtas to the sidelines.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore accused the Taoiseach of trying to dodge the demands for a public inquiry into the banking crisis, by using a process that would take until after the next general election.
He said the Government was proposing what would be an inquiry in name only, as it would be held behind closed doors. Deputy Gilmore said Mr Cowen's proposal had also excluded himself, the Government and the Department of Finance from any inquiry.
And he protested at the proposal to limit the inquiry to events up to September 2008, as that would, for example, exclude any inquiry into the phone call from Anglo Irish Bank to the Financial Regulator, about the manipulation of its balance sheet.
Mr Cowen rejected all of Mr Gilmore's allegations, saying his proposals would involve an inquiry with tribunal-like powers, without incurring tribunal-like costs. The Taoiseach also said no-one was excluded from the enquiry, and that he would co-operate fully.
