Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. I am not sure if they followed the earlier presentation from departmental officials who indicated there would be significant changes to the draft heads which have given rise to concern. The Bill is relatively short and FLAC has raised certain issues that probably should be addressed. The officials have indicated that the exemption for SPVs will not exist in the Bill and that provision will be made for providers of services. Mr. Joyce expressed concern in this regard. Given that SPVs will no longer be provided for in the same way, does he think that the Bill is sufficient in terms of the protections that existed heretofore for consumers? We have been assured that the Bill will wind back the clock to the point when the loans were sold and that the protections existing at that point will be available in the future.

If the servicer is to be legally accountable under the regulations, what happens if the contract between the owner and servicer of the loan denies responsibility, and would there be recourse to the Financial Services Ombudsman? They are saying they will deal with the issue but it is difficult to discuss it when it is not included in the heads of the Bill. They indicated that they would seek to find a way of revising the process so that where the servicer of a loan claims it is only servicing the loan and is not responsible for it, the owner of the loan is pulled into it. This would only apply to non-regulated entities. I asked this question in the context of AIB outsourcing the servicing of its loan book to Certus. What recourse would I have if I wanted to make a complaint about the way in which AIB managed my loan? The point is that it would apply only to unregulated entities. Do the witnesses think the Bill is robust enough to deal with Government's intention, which is to go no further than the provisions that already exist?