Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate those last comments because that is the problem here; the ombudsman's office, which will be merged, has its own role in dealing with complaints and in mediating complaints. Protection, however, is in making sure that people have not been stung in the first place. It is about trying to protect individuals. I believe there is nothing to prohibit the organisation that has "consumer protection" within its title from looking at the judgment, looking at the withdrawal of the Court of Appeal decision and looking at the fact that GE Money has issued contracts to thousands of individuals. One of those contracts was taken before the High Court in a test case and was found to be a mis-sold financial product. I believe that the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission should be highlighting this and making people aware that this is an issue they should look at, and if they feel it is necessary then they should bring a case to the Financial Service Ombudsman. It is not right.

We have had the situation around the tracker mortgages and that has rightly rattled the confidence in the banking system. It started with just a couple of individuals; people who slogged it out against all the odds. They kept going and persevering and all the rest. The next thing is the gates open and it transpires that approximately 15,000 individuals have been caught in this regard. I appeal to the CCPC to look at that role, bearing in mind that it is a bit of a mess. The witnesses understand that from working in the sector, and members may understand it from being on this committee, but were I sitting at home and googling for information, I would expect the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to hold that role. However, it really does not as it is the Central Bank that has the powers. I would be interested to know if the commission would like more of a role in consumer protection. I remember engaging with the witnesses on what we called the insurance rip-off issue. Again, the commission had no real role in that matter because the powers and responsibilities lay with the Central Bank.

I have a question on the mortgage market. The witnesses have described the market as "dysfunctional". Would they classify, or state, that there is a market failure in the mortgage market at present?