TWO MEMBERS OF the Public Accounts Committee are among those who will make up the special Oireachtas committee that will examine the collapse of the Irish banking system.
Fine Gael TDs Kieran O’Donnell and Eoghan Murphy have both been asked to participate in the inquiry along with Carlow-Kilkenny deputy, John-Paul Phelan, who currently serves on the Oireachtas Justice Committee, TheJournal.ie has learned.
O’Donnell and Murphy will be forced to relinquish their roles on the high-profile PAC in order to be part of the investigation team with Phelan also likely to give up his role on the justice committee.
However, the identity of the Labour parliamentary party member who will join inquiry chairman Ciarán Lynch on the committee is still being determined.
The junior coalition party is likely to nominate a senator with Aideen Hayden, Ivana Bacik, John Gilroy and Susan O’Keeffe among those in contention.
It’s understood that difficulties have arisen over some in Labour’s wish to have a second TD, in addition to Lynch, to serve on the committee.
Among those Dáil deputies thought to be in contention were Kevin Humphreys and Arthur Spring, both of whom serve on the Finance Committee.
The identities of the opposition members had already been made known. Fianna Fáil is nominating its party finance spokesperson Michael McGrath and Sinn Féin is choosing finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty.
The Technical Group has nominated independent TD Stephen Donnelly to be its member with Richard Boyd-Barrett and Socialist TD Joe Higgins also having expressed an interest at a meeting of the grouping earlier this week.
The motion for the formal establishment of the inquiry was due to be debated in the Dáil yesterday, but was postponed following the resignation of Alan Shatter.
It is now set to be debated by TDs next Wednesday before it goes to the Seanad.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say