Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan has agreed to intercede with the European Central Bank (ECB) to see how it can help the Oireachtas banking inquiry with its work.

Committee chairman Ciaran Lynch met Mr Honohan on Wednesday to discuss how the ECB could further its work.

“Governor Honohan has agreed to open dialogue with the ECB to assist the committee. The committee has agreed to proceed with this line of engagement to explore and develop how the ECB can co-operate with the inquiry and assist the committee in advancing its work,” Mr Lynch said.

“In particular, the committee is interested in the information that the ECB would make available to the committee to assist us in our work and that may be admissibly used as evidence and inform our final report,” Mr Lynch said.

He said the committee had dealt with a number of other issues including resumed consideration of the draft schedule of meetings and witnesses.

An update on the meeting schedule and forthcoming meetings were discussed and that update will be posted on the inquiry schedule at oireachtas.ie/bankinginquiry The committee was also updated on correspondence with institutions from which it is seeking documents and other material to assist its work and was informed that there was a high level of co-operation to date.

Mr Lynch said the members also continued preparations for forthcoming meetings and received technical briefings on the substance of those meetings as well as a communications protocol between investigators and information providers and an information management protocol relating to information received from the Central Bank.