Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cognisant of the fact that Mr. Kelleher is here in his wider professional capacity and not with regard to his current direct employment, I nevertheless also asked the Data Protection Commissioner a question last week which reflected on a series of cases that had been referred to me where vexation was clearly expressed where people had taken borrowings from commercial banks for mortgages and house purchases. They found themselves in difficulty over the straitened years, which are hopefully now largely past, and their loans, with a substantial body of others - a loan book, per se- were sold off to a third financial institution, outside the jurisdiction in some cases. People engaging with direct application to a local lender, whether through a local bank branch or whatever the case might be, have developed a relationship and trust, and all the information that they proffer to help secure a borrowing is also transferred, in some cases outside of the jurisdiction, and they are quite unaware of it. I have no doubt that the answer is probably that they ticked a box or signed a contract that provided, in small print, that this can happen.

It is a damnable situation. I am reflecting on grievous upset on the part of a not insubstantial number of people who have referred this issue to me. I do not know if I am being targeted because my background is in the same realm. Colleagues to whom I have spoken have had similar cases referred to them.