The government has agreed at cabinet to establish a new Oireachtas committee with the special purpose of conducting a banking inquiry.

On the Public Accounts Committee, I represented Fine Gael on a sub-committee tasked with drafting a roadmap for holding a public banking inquiry. This 300 page document explains what we already know, identifies the gaps in our knowledge and poses 276 questions that need to be answered. It also lays out the process of such an investigation in the necessary phases. This report can be accessed here.

The PAC will not be tasked with holding the coming banking inquiry.

This week it was announced that:

– the inquiry will be conducted under the Government’s recently enacted Oireachtas inquiries legislation;

– the inquiry will be carried out by a dedicated Joint Oireachtas Committee to be established for that purpose;

– the Committee will be chaired by Deputy Ciaran Lynch and be composed of 7 T.D.s and 2 Senators;

– a motion to establish the inquiry will be put before the Dáil on Tuesday 6 May 2014, with the committee moving immediately to draft proposals for its terms of reference.

I have put my name forward to An Taoiseach Enda Kenny to sit on this special committee.