Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan says there is no reason for a commission of inquiry to investigate the political handling of the financial crisis.
He made his comments today before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance to discuss the terms of reference of the commission of the investigation into the banking crisis.
Opposition members, however, want the scope of an enquiry into the banking crisis extended.
Minister Lenihan said the Government does want a commission of inquiry into the failures of the banks and those who were supposed to regulate them, but it wants the inquiry to stop the day before the debts of the banks were guaranteed in September 2008, and it sees no need for it to inquire into the political handling of the crisis.
This afternoon's session gave members of the Oireachtas the opportunity to discuss any issues in relation to working out the terms of reference of the inquiry.
The two preliminary reports from Central Bank Governor Patrick Honohan and international economists Klaus Regling and Max Watson are being used as a basis to inform the commission of investigation.
Labour's Joan Burton said the inquiry has to cover the period up to January 2009, when Anglo Irish Bank was nationalised. She also insisted that the role of the Minister, the civil service and the Department of Finance should come within the commission's terms of reference.
Fine Gael's new finance spokesman Michael Noonan also sought an extension of the inquiry, saying the Minister justified the guarantee on the grounds of a liquidity crisis in the banks, but it only became clear later that there was a solvency crisis at Anglo and Nationwide, leaving the taxpayer on the hook.
The Minister then said he was willing to extend the tems of reference beyond September 28, 2008, but he saw no reason to include the political response to the crisis.
The Minister said he hopes to name a single individual to head the commisison of inquiry in the next few days - someone who is an expert in the European financial framework, and not necessarily an Irish judge.
