NOT ONLY is Peter Nyberg’s commission of investigation into the banking crisis not going to name names when it comes to the errant lending that led to the domestic financial crisis, it is reluctant to disclose the identities of its own staff.

Asked about staff working for Nyberg, the commission said it was precluded from making any public comment.

We previously reported that Nyberg, the former senior Finnish civil servant, has hired the former KBC Homeloans boss Tom Foley and Pat O’Mahony, the one-time head of AIB’s branch network, to assist him.

Nyberg has turned to individuals who have long been outside banking to help his wide-ranging archaeological dig into why the banks behaved as they did. They were based overseas and thereby avoided contamination with Ireland’s failed crop of bankers.

Matt O’Driscoll, a chartered accountant who worked as a corporate banker after a stint at KPMG, is part of Nyberg’s team. He did much of his work in Hong Kong and has been involved in Irish private hospital investments, including Shanakiel in Cork.

Also on Nyberg’s team is David McGee, the former head of business banking at National Irish Bank. He left NIB in the mid- 1990s to take a senior position in Europe for National Australia Bank, NIB’s owner at that time.

Like O’Driscoll, he has spent many years outside Ireland, working through a consultancy firm called Oryx Finance in Dubai.McGee, an accountant as well as a banker, maintains an interesting blog, Home Thoughts From Dubai, which carries insights into “danger investments” and his views on the world of finance.

Two more recruits, Tom Noonan and Michael Monaghan, who have a knowledge of banking, are also helping Nyberg with his workload, which must be completed by March. Given the scale of questions thrown up by the crisis, they have quite a workload.

No wonder Nyberg needs a hand.