Lenihan soon to decide on publication of advice relating to bank guarantee

MINISTER FOR Finance Brian Lenihan will decide shortly whether to publish documents and advice given to him about the banking crisis and written after the bank guarantee was issued in September 2008.

Mr Lenihan also announced the appointment of a former senior Finnish government official to lead the commission of investigation into the banking crisis. He told the Dáil that Peter Nyberg, former deputy director general for financial services in Finland’s ministry for finance had agreed to lead the commission. Mr Nyberg “has all the necessary experience” said Mr Lenihan, who said the commission would be allocated a budget of €1.8 million for this year.

On Wednesday it was agreed to extend the terms of reference for the commission to run from 2003 to January 15th, 2009, almost four months after the bank guarantee was given. The commission will examine corporate governance and risk management in each of the banks covered by the guarantee, including the phase leading to the Government’s decision to nationalise Anglo Irish Bank. It had originally been expected to end on September 30th, 2008, the day the guarantee was announced.

Fine Gael finance spokesman Michael Noonan had suggested the inquiry be broadened to include advice given by the department to the Minister. Mr Lenihan was “open to persuasion that documents pertaining to the period up to January 15th, 2009, should be put into the public domain” and he would make a decision shortly.

He was speaking during a Dáil motion confirming the order to allow for the inquiry and to refer it to the Oireachtas finance committee.

The Minister will establish an independent review by international experts to evaluate the role of the Department of Finance in providing advice to the Minister and Government. He wanted to ensure the “lessons of this period of extraordinary stress” would be learned. “The review will have due regard to the skills, training and staffing mix required by a modern finance and economic ministry so it can best fulfil its role.”

Mr Lenihan said the Oireachtas finance committee would finish its investigation into the banking crisis by the end of October and would report by November 4th.

Mr Noonan said he might have to change that date. The committee would require “professional advice” and if he started the 90-day European procurement process immediately “the committee would not get under way until October, so having it conclude by November would be difficult”.

Mr Noonan welcomed the amendments to the terms of reference of the investigation. He told Mr Lenihan “you’ve made a lot of serious concessions that will improve the work of the committee”.