Report recommends more time be given to future inquiries

The recommendations of the Oireachtas banking inquiry address issues such as the timescale for future inquiries, ways to avoid prejudicing criminal trials and what to do if the Dáil is dissolved.

The joint committee was the first to be held under new inquiries, privileges and procedures legislation and it recommends 28 ways in which the 2013 Act should be reviewed.

Among them, it says parliamentary committees should be given two years to inquire into matters of significant public interest and notes that it had only 14 months to complete its work.

It also says the legislation should be changed to create a specific type of “inquire, record, report” inquiry, with power to make findings on systems, practices, procedures or policy only which “would be subject to less onerous obligations in terms of fair procedures and consultation”.

The report recommends that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) should prepare general guidelines for inquiry committees on avoiding prejudice to criminal trials and investigations.

It adds that a protocol for engagement between the DPP and the Oireachtas should be agreed to include a provision for imparting certain information to the Joint Committee Chairman only on a confidential basis as a way to avoid prejudicing criminal trials.

A further recommendation is that appropriate transitional provisions be included in the 2013 Act “to mitigate the impact of Dáil dissolution on the work of inquiries”.

It goes on to recommend the introduction of comprehensive and appropriate sanctions for unauthorised disclosure of confidential material, to cover members of the Houses, and the staff of members and of committees. And it says a standard provision should be included in all all contracts for expert advice services to Government requiring the contractor to cooperate with parliamentary inquiries where requested.

In his introduction, committee chairman Ciarán Lynch said: “The banking inquiry is the first of its type and has been challenging and complex from a legal, process and timing perspective.

“I believe that we have demonstrated that the Houses of the Oireachtas can carry out fair, balanced and cost-effective inquiries.”