The parliamentary committee set up to investigate the Icelandic banking collapse will release its report tomorrow on Althingi’s first day back from Easter. It will be made public immediately.

The 2,000 page report was initially due last November and has been repeatedly delayed. The report is in nine volumes.

The first seven volumes are concerned with the lead-up to the collapse and its underlying causes. The eighth volume contains a working group report which had the task of answering whether explanations for the fall of the Icelandic banks, and related economic shocks, could to some extent be found in the banks’ practices and ethics, according to RUV.

Selected appendices make up the ninth volume of the printed report. A more extensive selection of appendix material will be available in the internet version which will be publicly available on the website www.rannsoknarnefnd.althingi.is.

Large swathes of the report have also been translated into English and will also be publicly available straight away on www.sic.althingi.is. The printed report will be for sale in Icelandic book shops.

The report will also be read out loud in its entirety at Reykjavik City Theatre. Some 45 actors will take it in turns to read the report non-stop, day and night, over three or more days. Entry to the theatre will be free and audience members can come and go as they please, a press release stated. The reading can also be watched as a live stream on the theatre’s website, www.borgarleikhus.is.

It is fair to say the report is eagerly anticipated, partly because none of it has been leaked ahead of time – a testament to the high security surrounding its creation and printing.

It is expected that the Independence Party will be criticised in the report, as they were in government throughout the banks’ liberalisation, privatisation and subsequent collapse. Some party members have used the long delay to start questioning the report in an apparent attempt to undermine its credibility – but Independence Party leader Bjarni Benediktsson this weekend sought to distance himself from such speculation, saying that his party must take the report extremely seriously and seek to learn from its findings.

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