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Labour TD Ciarán Lynch, the chairman of the Oireachtas finance committee, is keen to get the chance to lead a banking inquiry. Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland

'Anglo tapes show need for banking inquiry' - man who wants to run inquiry

Ciarán Lynch, the chair of the Oireachtas finance committee, says the tapes may be “the tip of the iceberg”.

THE MAN WHO wants to be put in charge of the Oireachtas’ banking inquiry has said the disclosures in the Anglo Tapes further underline the urgent need for an inquiry to take place.

Ciarán Lynch, the Labour TD who chairs the Oireachtas committee on finance, said the tapes published by the Irish Independent today were “proof positive” that a public investigation was warranted.

The tapes published by the Irish Independent revealed how two executives at the bank discussed deliberately understating the extent of Anglo’s financial problems – telling the State that the bank would need a €7 billion recapitalisation when they knew that much more would be needed.

The tactics discussed by John Bowe and Peter FitzGerald indicated that Anglo believed the State would have to make further investments in order to safeguard its original €7 billion – whereas if the full extent of Anglo’s problems was revealed early, the State may have let the bank collapse.

“We urgently need an inquiry to shine a light on the circumstances around the collapse of the bank and the introduction of the bank guarantee in September 2008,” Lynch said in a statement this evening.

“The information that has come into the public domain today may be just the tip of the iceberg, and any other information from that period, whether it exists in hard copy or stored electronically, should be made available in full to such an inquiry.”

Lynch said it was evident that the public deserved a full explanation of the circumstances that led to the ill-fated bank guarantee being introduced in September 2008 – less than a fortnight after the recorded telephone conversation revealed today.

Legislation currently making its way through the Oireachtas provides a legal basis under which politicians can undertake a public inquiry – with individual Oireachtas committees putting together a written pitch stating how long their inquiry would take and the resources needed to carry it out.

A final decision would then be made by the Oireachtas authorities – meaning it is up to individual committees to compete for the right to hold the inquiry.

Both Lynch’s committee and the Public Accounts Committee, chaired by Fianna Fáil’s John McGuinness, have staked their claim for the right to host an Oireachtas banking inquiry.

“Any such inquiry should be very specific in its terms of reference, should operate within a very specific time period and should not be left open-ended,” Lynch said this evening.

“It would also be necessary that it would be appropriately resourced and supported.”

Read: The Anglo Tapes: 9 jaw-dropping quotes from before the bailout

More: TDs at odds over claims government sought to undermine McGuinness

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94 Comments
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    Mute Marbles
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    Oct 31st 2019, 2:13 PM

    I can’t believe the news today.

    567
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    Mute Roy Donovan
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    Oct 31st 2019, 2:30 PM

    @Marbles: it was a beautiful day up until this..

    63
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    Mute Marbles
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    Oct 31st 2019, 2:32 PM

    @Roy Donovan: Walk on.

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    Mute Manbackonboard
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    Oct 31st 2019, 3:03 PM

    @Marbles: How long must we sing this song?

    56
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    Mute Thomas Maher
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    Oct 31st 2019, 3:19 PM

    @Marbles: all these puns are giving me vertigo

    43
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    Mute Brian Flavin
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    Oct 31st 2019, 4:13 PM

    @Marbles: McDonald’s disrespect

    8
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    Mute Frank Martin
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    Oct 31st 2019, 4:44 PM

    @Thomas Maher: Indeed, there are some very punny people on here

    8
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    Mute Declan McArdle
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    Oct 31st 2019, 10:46 PM

    @Marbles: … Elevation

    1
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    Mute Greg Ward
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    Oct 31st 2019, 2:09 PM

    FFS – Cop on.

    147
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    Mute Colin Mcgahon
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    Oct 31st 2019, 3:03 PM

    Missing the big picture here why has Portugal still got sundaes and Ireland doesn’t

    134
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    Mute filthypete
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    Oct 31st 2019, 6:33 PM

    @Colin Mcgahon: coz it’s a lot hotter?

    4
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    Mute Dave Hammond
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    Oct 31st 2019, 3:41 PM

    ah would stop – it was Portugal – if they had of made this mistake in Ireland itself I would see your point and faux outrage but FFS. Google Sundae ? How would that have worked , people getting knickers in a twist over nothing these days.

    89
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    Mute Declan Snow
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    Oct 31st 2019, 2:27 PM

    I just wish they’d bring the sundae back to Ireland

    79
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    Mute Steph
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    Oct 31st 2019, 2:47 PM

    @Declan Snow: Bring back hot fudge sundaes

    77
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    Mute Seán Corcoran BSc (Hons)
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    Oct 31st 2019, 2:22 PM

    Period Sundays. Nice.

    65
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    Mute Jack Johnson
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    Oct 31st 2019, 3:28 PM

    You wake up in the morning, you’ve got to read all the Sunday papers, the kids are running round, you’ve got to mow the lawn, wash the car, and you think “Sunday, bloody Sunday!”

    69
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    Mute The next small thing
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    Oct 31st 2019, 3:45 PM

    @Jack Johnson: good man Alan, have a thumbs up

    19
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    Mute Marcus Massey
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    Oct 31st 2019, 8:48 PM

    @Jack Johnson: Really encapsulates the frustration of a Sunday

    10
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    Mute ReallyBadHusband
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    Oct 31st 2019, 2:45 PM

    I Can’t close my eyes and make this go away

    37
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    Mute My Name is?
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    Oct 31st 2019, 3:50 PM

    It only a jasus ice cream

    30
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    Mute John Euro Cooke
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    Oct 31st 2019, 2:21 PM

    Portugal lol

    24
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    Mute Craic_a_tower
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    Oct 31st 2019, 3:20 PM

    They couldn’t just googled the expression before using it? There is tone deaf and willful ignorance. We don’t own the expression but there isn’t anything funny about any of the uses through history

    23
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    Mute Dave Hammond
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    Oct 31st 2019, 4:23 PM

    @Craic_a_tower: So you think the Portuguese people should have Googled the terms with ‘Sundae’ in advance to find out if it was offensive…… and that it was beyond tone deaf….. willful ignorance ? when even the Lord himself has spent the past 33+ years preaching to us that Sunday Bloody Sunday was not in fact a rebel song ….nonsense..

    26
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    Mute Lorcan OReilly
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    Oct 31st 2019, 6:43 PM

    @Dave Hammond: more so a multinational that spends millions on advertising. Look it was a mistake they apologized but they should be doing their research. Do you know how many people have to sign off on ad campaigns it wasnt just one guy. The apology and removal is an appropriate response.

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    Mute Mike
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    Oct 31st 2019, 7:25 PM

    @Craic_a_tower: I’d say you’re no craic at all. Get over yourself. Some joke getting offended by this.

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    Mute Dave Hammond
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    Oct 31st 2019, 7:26 PM

    @Lorcan OReilly: yep I do ( happend to have worked in Ad industry for years ) but in my opinion this is just complete nonsense…restaurants in the states sell St Valentines Day Massacres and nobody gets outraged and upset ….it’s just more PC / Faux outrage BS – they apologised in case they offended anyone , nobody has managed to find someone who was actually offended …it;s nonsense.

    6
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    Mute Matt Connolly
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    Oct 31st 2019, 3:26 PM

    There’s more to Ireland den dis.

    https://youtu.be/6RTJ4vHoYUs

    9
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    Mute Clancy
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    Oct 31st 2019, 4:09 PM

    Streisand effect. You get more bang for your buck by being banned. More column inches by causing offence. If you can’t be great be offensive, mediocre gains no cut through.

    13
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    Mute Rob Hunt
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    Oct 31st 2019, 2:22 PM

    It’s always a small number of stores isn’t it?

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    Mute Paul Quirke
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    Oct 31st 2019, 6:50 PM

    Fatima from morketing got it slightly wrong :)

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    Mute Martin O Reilly
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    Oct 31st 2019, 5:05 PM

    Utter bullshite.

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    Mute Kevin Coyle
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    Oct 31st 2019, 5:32 PM

    Bono will have them in court for this

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    Mute Squiddley Diddley
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    Oct 31st 2019, 8:03 PM

    @Kevin Coyle: Nah, he took the name from a film.

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    Mute Sarah Clifford
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    Nov 1st 2019, 7:22 AM

    Great advertising for maccys thou

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