Sinn Féin Finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty has said there are fundamental failures in the final report of the Banking Inquiry.
Speaking after the report was published this afternoon, Deputy Doherty said the delay in establishing the inquiry and the timing of the release of the report was to facilitate Enda Kenny calling a Spring election.
“The final report, however, rationalises the key player’s position and presents their position as the defining narrative of the crisis,” he said.
“This is a major failing of the Banking Inquiry.
“While the banking report touches upon of the relationship between bankers, developers and politicians, what it fails to do is examine those relationships.
“That was the whole purpose of the ‘nexus phase’ - to critically analyse those links. This is another fundamental failure of the report.
“It fails to consider in any real way the operation of NAMA, whether it was appropriate or not, the liquidation of IBRC and the issue of burden-sharing outside of the ECB’s response.
“We are all aware that there were challenges at the latter end in trying to get this report finished, but the fact remains that the Government must accept some responsibility for that situation.
“The pressures to get this report across the line so that Enda Kenny could call a Spring election coupled with the delay in establishing the inquiry has left us with a dysfunctional document.
He added: “The key point here is whether any lessons will be learnt. Clearly we can see that this will not be the case.
“This Government has applauded this report. And why won’t it?
“The boom/bust approach of Fianna Fáil, of cutting taxes to win votes, is now the economic policy of Fine Gael and Labour.
“Nothing has been learnt from the past.”
Ciaran Lynch, chairman of the inquiry, said that it was never intended to point the finger of blame at individuals.
He said the idea that Ireland was bounced into a bailout was not true - repeating the finding that it was inevitable.
He also said the idea of the bank guarantee being tabled in one night had now been debunked.
“There is no certain formula to avoid another crisis but constant vigilance and early preventative action is critical,” he said.
