John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Can I interrupt Ms Goggin? Let us measure the very fine language that would be accepted by most in the context of Ms Goggin's opening statement and what has happened. In 2009, a customer dragged a bank kicking and screaming to the courts. Since then, under enormous pressure from all sorts of individuals and groups, the banks have been exposed as not only taking money from customers from whom they should not have taken it but of keeping that money. I am talking about theft. From memory, I reckon that in one bank alone some 20 family homes have been lost. Alongside that, we have the same type of action being taken by each bank. Ms Goggin says that is because they were losing their shirt on tracker mortgages. I am asking Ms Goggin, as someone who is supposed to protect the consumer and look at the banks in terms of cartel-like activities, what she says to those people who did not just lose their shirt but their houses. They felt that they were disgraced through the banks. Their credit rating was torn to shreds. Their lives were devastated. We had all the witnesses before this committee. What does the commission intend to do with the banks? Both Mr. Deering and Ms Goggin spoke about the culture that exists in the banks, but I do not see them doing much for the individual consumer or in terms of the effort needed to break the banks from a role where they see themselves as being in a position to rip off the customer whenever they choose. I get no sense of that from Ms Goggin or Mr. Deering.