The chairman of the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry is calling on the Taoiseach Enda Kenny not to call a general election until next year, in order to give the inquiry time to conclude its work.

The inquiry is due to publish its final report in mid to late January, but it will collapse if an election is called first.

Chairman Ciaran Lynch has this message for the Taoiseach.

"There's a lot of speculation with regard to when the next general election will happen, but the fact of the matter is that if an election were to happen before January 2016 the Banking Inquiry will fall - and that work that has been done over the last 12 months or more by its 11 members - they were put together as a committee unanimously by both the Seanad and the Oireachtas" he said.

"They were given a job to do, and I now believe that that job has to be completed" he added.

Mr Lynch told Newstalk Lunchtime Enda Kenny is well aware of the risks.

The 11 person committee has heard oral evidence from 128 witnesses over 49 days since last December.

The inquiry has sought and received nearly 50,000 documents to date amounting to hundreds of thousands of pages.

This was the first time that the key documents over the period January 1st 1992 to December 31st 2013 have been collated and examined in one place at one time.

Mr Lynch's concerns were echoed by Labour TD Anne Ferris, who is concerned an early election could affect the enactment of any new legislation.