Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is answering the question, so we are not wasting time. One question that I raised on Second Stage was about a situation in which one of the big banks - AIB or Bank of Ireland - sells the loan to a company outside Ireland, which in turn appoints a credit servicing firm to do the work for it in Ireland. Essentially, the Minister is saying that the owner, who could be in any other country - say, Canada - will not be regulated, because it is not giving instructions. I maintain that this is a way out. My main concern, which I highlighted on Second Stage, is about this issue. I think it is a way for Bank of Ireland and AIB, the banks with the greatest number of mortgages, or Permanent TSB or whoever, to put together bundles of their more difficult loans and sell them off at a discount to a company outside the State, which, in turn, will hire a credit servicing firm to do its bidding. It may satisfy the conditions of the Minister's new amendment, No. 20, to which he has referred, by saying, "We are not instructing it." Ultimately, the owner, who is unregulated, will be calling the shots, and when it seeks expressions of interest from different credit servicing firms it will appoint the firm that will do what it wants done. It would be similar to a passive owner of any company, where the management gets on with the job. I still believe the owner would have the ultimate power to give instructions because it can remove the credit servicing firm from the equation and appoint a new firm in due course. I believe, even though it would not appear to interfere, it would be well able to interfere by sacking the firm. Ultimately, it has the power to hire and fire the credit servicing firm. That is enough of a threat for any credit servicing firm to do the bidding of the owner without any visible trace of interference by the owner.