Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We refer to "redress" but that is just a fancy word to cover what is customers' money. Bank customers and many members of the public are irritated because approximately €300 million of their money is resting in the banks' accounts when they are experiencing financial distress as a result of the banks not returning their money to them.

I will now focus on the compensation scheme. When the representatives of the Central Bank appeared before the committee last year, I made the point that the schemes the bank had to sign off on were inadequate. I welcome the fact that the bank has challenged two of the schemes. When a person has been overcharged by €30,000 on a tracker mortgage, that money is stolen from him or her. I know some individuals in this position. I have sat in their houses and listened to their concerns. They have cried in front of me when they told how their children's childhoods were taken from them and how matters were made worse when they did not have the money to cover medical procedures. Some people blame the financial distress this caused them for the breakdown of their marriages and no longer having access to their children on a 24-7 basis. A person who has had €30,000 stolen from him or her by a bank is being offered €3,000 compensation, which amounts to €1 for every day he or she did not have access to his or her money. In Professor Lane's view is that level of compensation adequate?