New doubts have emerged about whether the Banking Inquiry will ever issue its final report.
Large parts of its final report are now being rewritten for a second time – leaving almost no time to accommodate any extra problems.
The inquiry was meant to finish work on its draft report today – but after a four-hour emergency meeting last night, that’s now been pushed back to tomorrow evening.
The first version of the executive summary, written by civil servants, was considered not political enough. The second draft, written by some members, was last night written off as TOO political.
A third edition is now being written today, while members have been give another 24 hours to submit a final round of changes.
But that all means that the ‘wriggle room’ in the timetable is virtually gone – and the new delays will mean meetings over Christmas for the inquiry team.
The suggested date for the final report is now January 27th – but with every other deadline so far being missed, there are grave concerns that the final deadline won’t be met either,
