Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are focusing on a matter and I am disputing the use of moral suasion and other powers of the Central Bank to deal with this. The point was echoed by the Central Bank this morning and it sends a terrible signal to financial institutions that if they continue to deny the fact that the Central Bank believes a certain number of people should be within the scope of this investigation, the powers used will only be to write to affected customers and ask them to go to the Financial Services Ombudsman.

We should be clear. Does the Central Bank have the power, under the 2013 Act and where customers are currently being overcharged, to impose a redress position on those bank? If it has those powers, why is it asking the customers, many of whom do not have experience or wherewithal to take a complaint to the Financial Services Ombudsman, to go in that direction? In this case, it is the dog that will not bark and the Central Bank is sending a terrible signal to the financial institutions to continue the way they are going. The reality is that many people will not take a case to the Financial Services Ombudsman and the institutions of the State that exist to protect customers are failing them in this case.