After weeks of to-ing and fro-ing, the finishing touches to the masterplan for the banking inquiry should be agreed today.
The committee is expected to lay out an ambitious timeline for hearings, hoping to begin some public hearings as early as December.
Those hearings would largely focus on the background to the banking inquiry – with experts giving evidence on how closely banks were regulated, and so on.
But under the plans being considered by TDs, the first public hearings with key witnesses and major players in the banking collapse would not take place until April.
When that stage begins, the committee of 11 members will be expected to hold 14 weeks of hearings – with up to eight hours of hearings a day, for three days.
And TDs with one eye on the next election will need to stay focused – the hearings have to be wrapped up by the end of September to make sure the inquiry is finished before the election is called.
