Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I ask that in the first quarter we would extend an invitation to Professor Lane and his colleagues to come back to give us an update on the position. We have no option. This is of such magnitude that we owe it to the people effectively to step in to make sure the process is moving at a pace. I take Professor Lane's point on the initial contracts that were set up with the banks. However, if the banks feel that the enforcer, which effectively should be Central Bank, will come down on them extremely hard on a particular transaction, this would not happen. The banks are not naive. The banks knew what they were doing. If they felt the strong arm of the Central Bank would come down on them heavily, this particular issue of ripping off people on tracker mortgages who went onto fixed mortgages and who should have gone back on trackers would not have continued. I believe the regulator and the Central Bank have a huge degree of responsibility. They are charged with regulating the banks on behalf of individuals and on behalf of the taxpayer. On this matter, they were found to be remiss.