Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We have a quorum. I call the meeting into public session. Is that agreed? Agreed. We have a quorum, the Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis is now in public session. Can I ask members and those in the public gallery to ensure that their mobile devices are switched off? We begin today's session, and series of sessions and public hearings, with Mr. Tony Grimes, former director general of the Central Bank of Ireland. In doing so, I would like to welcome everyone to the 29th public hearing of the Joint Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis. Today we continue our hearings with witnesses from the Central Bank of Ireland and the Financial Regulator. At this morning's session we will hear from Mr. Tony Grimes, former director general at the Central Bank. Mr. Tony Grimes held senior management positions in the Central Bank in the area of economics, international relations, markets and payments. He was appointed assistant director general in 2004 and oversaw the financial markets and payments of securities, settlements divisions. In August 2007, he was appointed to the role of director general at the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland, a position he held until his retirement in 2011. During his time as director general, he was also appointed acting Governor from 19 July 2008 until 19 September 2008, in the absence of Governor Hurley due to illness. Mr. Grimes, you are very welcome before the committee this morning.

Before hearing from the witness today, I wish to advise the witness that by virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect to their evidence to this committee. If you are directed by the Chairman to cease giving evidence in relation to a particular matter and you continue to do so, you are entitled thereafter only to qualified privilege in respect of your evidence. You are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given. I would remind members and those present that there are currently criminal proceedings ongoing and further criminal proceedings are scheduled during the lifetime of the inquiry which overlap with the subject matter of the inquiry. Therefore the utmost caution should be taken not to prejudice those proceedings. In addition, there are particular obligations of professional secrecy on officers of the Central Bank in respect of confidential information they have come across in the course of their duties. This stems from European and Irish law including section 33AK of the Central Bank Act 1942. The banking inquiry also has obligations of professional secrecy in terms of some of the information which has been provided to it by the Central Bank. These obligations have been taken into account by the committee and will affect the questions asked and the answers which can be lawfully given in today's proceedings. In particular, it will mean that some information can be dealt with in a summary or aggregate basis only, so that individual institutions will not be identified. Members of the public are reminded that photography is prohibited in the committee room. To assist the smooth running of the inquiry, we will display certain documents on the screens here in the committee room.

For those sitting in the gallery, these documents will be displayed on the screens to your left and right and members of the public and journalists are reminded that these documents are confidential and they should not publish any of the documents so displayed.

The witness has been directed to attend this meeting of the Joint Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis. You have been furnished with booklets of core documents. These are before the committee, will be relied upon in questioning and form part of the evidence of the inquiry.

So, with that said, if I can now ask the clerk to administer the oath to Mr. Grimes this morning.