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

Okay. I want to ask the Minister a question on foot of that. Any of the vulture funds that we have invited here have refused to come before us. Capita and Pepper are considering the invitation.

As they are regulated entities working on behalf of the vulture funds, I would like to see the Department in any exchanges it might have with them insisting that they take up the invitation to be accountable to the public in a forum like this. In the case of Capita, in particular, the experience Members of the Houses have had in dealing with it is frightening. To find young men and women in the banking sector being encouraged to go down the route they are going in how they deal with customers is shocking in itself. It will leave a legacy in our banks, that may well employ these people, that will continue this attitude towards customers. It has been and continues to be very difficult for people to engage with them. We are at a stage now within the economy where people are having to engage with these organisations. In whatever way we can we should consider legislation that would force them to look at customers' rights and their obligations to ensure those rights are protected. That does not happen; in fact it is quite the opposite. I know a number of Members who have acted on behalf of customers with these agencies and they have come away in complete shock. I am not easily shocked but when I saw the younger people coming on in Capita who were doing that work, it disturbed me that this would be going on in Irish society and our economy. It will be interesting to see if they accept our invitations but we must be far more aggressive to ensure they comply with the law; we should introduce new laws if necessary where we see gaps in the existing laws.